Ulster's 40-19 win puts the province in a strong position heading into a crunch Round 18 encounter against Edinburgh at home in the final regular match of the BKT URC season.
A bonus point win for Ulster would guarantee them a top two finish and secure a potential home semi-final in the play-offs, should they progress through the quarter finals.
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The try- scoring 'machine'
The struggling Dragons put up a spirited display against a confident Ulster side, whose quality showed in the second half as they pulled clear of the Welshmen through Tom Stewart and flanker, Nick Timoney, who scored his first try of the season.
Friday night also had another story to tell. Ulster fans have become accustomed to the sight of Tom Stewart crossing the whitewash for points in the past few months, and the 22 year old hooker scored his second hat trick in successive URC matches. The hat trick took him to 16 BKT URC tries for the season, surpassing the previous record of 14 held jointly by wingers Tim Visser (Edinburgh, 2010-11) and Rabz Maxwane (Cheetahs 2019-20).
The Player of the Match and now leading try scorer across Europe's three major leagues, didn't take all the credit when speaking to the media after the game, but did take the time to single out the work of his teammates.
“Honestly, they were pretty easy tries out there,” he said.
“I don’t know if I can take credit for any of them. There were two maul tries where the boys up the front do the job and then there was that wee trick play where Ethan (McIlroy) ran a super line and there was support from (John) Cooney, Dave (McCann) and Jacob (Stockdale) and I just kind of dotted the ball across the line. I’m happy enough.”
Tom Stewart, again. #BKTURC #URC | #ULSvDRA pic.twitter.com/1JytylM3aT
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) April 14, 2023
However, Ulster Head Coach Dan McFarland insists Stewart deserves full credit for his remarkable exploits. “Tom’s been brilliant. There is a skill to scoring tries off the back of a maul. Some of them are pretty easy, but some of them are pretty difficult and he’s worked hard for that,” he said.
“People think it’s just about dotting them down, but you need to read the timing when to break out of the back. He’s got a lot of decision-making to do and there’s a lot of skill in the execution.”
With the Stormers having lost at home to Munster, Ulster are now in pole position to finish second, with a home game against Edinburgh to come next weekend.
Looking ahead to that meeting with the Scots - who beat the Ospreys 45-21 on the weekend - McFarland said: “They have some real threats. They are a very dangerous team.
“They really enjoy playing in attack, they’ve got some strong running forwards and some really quick backs.”
The last word goes to try-machine Stewart, who said: “We are trying to focus on keeping the ball alive and keeping it quick so space opens up.
“We need to nail our standards because we let them slip at times against the Dragons.
“There were a couple of errors out there, I had a few errors myself. The boys just need to tidy up with some stuff and come together as a group and solidify on a few things around defence and then we willl be good to go.”