Ulster showed fellow Heineken Cup quarter-finalists Edinburgh no quarter, registering six tries in a bonus point victory which left them just a single point shy of a top four spot in the RaboDirect PRO12.
With Ulster sitting on 46 points thanks to the win, only a hard-fought away victory for Glasgow Warriors at the Ospreys kept Brian McLaughlin’s men out of the play-off zone with five rounds left to play.
Edinburgh’s play in the opening exchanges belied their lowly league standing, and they fully deserved the lead established by a fifth minute try, touched down in the right hand corner by Sep Visser.
Phil Godman missed the conversion. Less than two minutes had elapsed before Ruan Pienaar had the chance to pull three points back, but his penalty attempt veered off course.
The game continued in its free-flowing manner, and Ravenhill did not have to wait much longer for the hosts to get themselves on the scoreboard.
Full-back Adam D’Arcy was the main architect of the province’s 10th minute try thanks to a superb burst from midfield..
He supplied the ball to Pienaar at the right moment, and the Springbok evaded a handful of tackles before teeing up Paul Marshall, who showed a clean pair of heels to his chasers and darted over. Pienaar added the conversion for a 7-5 lead.
Moments later the Ulster tally was doubled, with Stefan Terblanche touching down by the left hand corner flag after swift cross-field passing from the backs. Pienaar was again on target with his conversion.
Now 14-5 behind the visitors were beginning to look decidedly vulnerable, D’Arcy again tearing up the turf after a quick Ulster turnover on halfway, and the opportunity for a third try was only quashed by an unfortunate knock on.
The white and red tide came again, however, and a fine break from a scrum deep in Ulster territory, from Marshall first and then Craig Gilroy, saw it wash over the Edinburgh defence and culminate in the heavily-involved D’Arcy diving under the posts on the half hour mark.
Pienaar’s conversion took the score to 21-5, but his opposite number Godman had just enough time to collect three more points on the stroke of half-time courtesy of a 22-metre penalty.
A further Godman penalty just the other side of the interval got the Scots into double figures, but with play then halted for a good 10 minutes as Mike McComish was treated for a head injury, both sides struggled to keep their concentration.
However, once play had finally restarted, Ulster proved the more focused of the two, as repeated Edinburgh infringements at the scrum saw referee Nigel Owens award a penalty try in the 50th minute. The bonus point now confirmed, Pienaar converted to leave it 28-11 in the hosts’ favour.
With the result and the bonus point secured, Ulster boss McLaughlin made multiple personnel changes on the hour.
One of those young replacements, Chris Cochrane, showed good awareness in the 63rd minute to pick up and land a close range try after strong scrummaging from the Ulster pack.
The cheer for Cochrane’s score was matched moments later by the PA announcement that McComish’s injury was not as serious as first feared.
Edinburgh grabbed an unconverted consolation try with seven minutes remaining through the league’s top scorer Tim Visser, but this was cancelled out just prior to full-time when replacement Ian Humphreys’ fresh legs carried him from halfway to the right corner for a fine individual try.
Pienaar’s conversion unluckily clattered a post as the match came to a close, but it mattered little as Ulster celebrated their fourth bonus point victory of the campaign.
Meanwhile, it was also confirmed tonight that try scorer Terblanche has extended his contract with Ulster for a further two months.
The South African has made quite an impact since arriving in Belfast in December as cover for the injured Jared Payne, scoring three tries in his ten appearances so far.
Ulster Rugby have announced that the former Springbok has signed a two-month extension which will keep him at Ravenhill until the end of April.
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