Ulster mounted to the summit of the Guinness PRO14 Conference B table tonight at Kingspan Stadium courtesy of an eight-try blitz of the Dragons, with several fringe players making a strong case for more game time in the weeks and months to come.
British and Irish Lion Iain Henderson made a welcome return to the first team squad, coming off the bench tonight, but it was Number Eight Nick Timoney who really caught the eye with a man-of-the match display and two tries.
The only unbeaten side in their conference, Ulster move above Leinster, beaten in Bloemfontein by the Toyota Cheetahs, on 18 points.
Ulster had the bonus point sewn up within half an hour, with scores from Stuart McCloskey, Peter Nelson, Timoney and a penalty try pulverising the Dragons before Wiehahn Herbst, Jacob Stockdale, Timoney again and David Shanahan compounded the visitors’ misery.
Both Les Kiss and his Dragons counterpart Bernard Jackman made wholesale changes from their victorious starting XVs in round three, although Ulster’s nine personnel switches seemed conservative in comparison to their visitors’ 13.
The John Cooney – Christian Lealiifano half-back partnership with the 100% winning record was rested, giving Paul Marshall and Nelson their chance at scrum-half and out-half respectively. Further changes in the back line brought in the rehabilitated Charles Piutau at full-back, Tommy Bowe at right wing and Darren Cave at outside centre, while inside centre McCloskey and left wing Stockdale retained their places.
In the pack Timoney made his first appearance at Number Eight, while prop Rodney Ah You, lock Robbie Diack and flanker Clive Ross all graduated from the bench. Kyle McCall and Rob Herring completed the front row, with Alan O’Connor partnering Diack in the second row, and Chris Henry captaining the side from the back row.
Ulster proved far from unsettled by the changes, running over their first try within two minutes. Piutau was the architect, creating something from nothing after scooping up a misplaced pass and sashaying his way between two Dragons to pick out Ross. The flanker found his back row colleague Henry, who in turn supplied McCloskey for a fine team try.
Dorian Jones clawed three back with a 35-metre penalty, but Ulster were in irrepressible form and a trademark diagonal from Bowe laid the foundation for try number two, Nelson eventually breaking through the heart of the Dragons defence thanks to a neat dummy.
Three more points followed from Jones before things went from bad to worse for the visitors as they first leaked a penalty try off a strong Ulster rolling maul, then had prop Lloyd Fairbrother sinbnned for his illegal attempts to prevent the score.
Piutau was again instrumental for the bonus-point try on 25 minutes, weaving more wing wizardry before Diack took over with a bullish drive to the line, where Timoney was on hand to apply the finishing touch for a score his performance richly deserved.
There was still time in the half for a textbook forward’s try for each side. First Herbst – a temporary blood replacement for Ah You – bundled over the fifth on the half hour, before hooker Rhys Buckley grabbed a consolation score in the corner for the Dragons off a rolling maul.
Half-Time Score Ulster 33 – Dragons 13
Ulster hit their sixth on 44 minutes, Stockdale capitalising on a stroke of bad luck for Dragons centre Thretton Palamo, who failed to apply downward pressure to Bowe’s grubber behind his own line, leaving the door wide open for the winger who had done well to chase down the kick.
Timoney’s second try five minutes later was perhaps the pick of the bunch, the back row receiving from McCloskey well outside the ‘22’ and swivelling his way clear of three tackles to ground beneath the posts.
Dane Blacker’s breakaway try on 55 minutes was followed by perhaps the loudest cheer of the evening to herald Henderson’s return to the first team, but it was another replacement – scrum-half Shanahan – who made the more immediate impact, notching the eighth try after alertly taking a quick tap penalty.
The game edged to its close with a TMO-overruled try for each side – denying Stockdale of a brace on the Ulster side – but with eight tries in the bag the Kingspan crowd were not overly vociferous in their disapproval.
There was even time in the dying seconds for a third Dragons try, this time for William Talbot-Davies, and a yellow card for Ah You for a poorly-executed tackle led excessively with the shoulder.
Next Ulster travel to Parma on 30th September for a Saturday afternoon kick-off against Conference A outfit Zebre.
Full-Time Score Ulster 52 Dragons 25
Ulster (15 – 9) Charles Piutau; Tommy Bowe, Darren Cave, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Peter Nelson, Paul Marshall
(1 – 8) Kyle McCall, Rob Herring, Rodney Ah You, Robbie Diack, Alan O’Connor, Clive Ross, Chris Henry (c), Nick Timoney
Replacements (16 – 23) John Andrew, Andy Warwick, Wiehahn Herbst, Iain Henderson, Matthew Rea, David Shanahan, Brett Herron, Rob Lyttle
Dragons (15 – 9) Carl Meyer; Adam Hughes, Thretton Palamo, Pat Howard, George Gasson; Dorian Jones, Owain Leonard
(1 – 8) Thomas Davies, Gerard Ellis, Lloyd Fairbrother, Matthew Screech, Rynard Landman, Max Williams, Oliver Griffiths (c), Robson Blake
Replacements (16 – 23) Rhys Buckley, Phil Price, Brok Harris, Joe Davies, Lennon Greggains, Dane Blacker, Angus O’Brien, William Talbot-Davies
British and Irish Lion Iain Henderson made a welcome return to the first team squad, coming off the bench tonight, but it was Number Eight Nick Timoney who really caught the eye with a man-of-the match display and two tries.
The only unbeaten side in their conference, Ulster move above Leinster, beaten in Bloemfontein by the Toyota Cheetahs, on 18 points.
Ulster had the bonus point sewn up within half an hour, with scores from Stuart McCloskey, Peter Nelson, Timoney and a penalty try pulverising the Dragons before Wiehahn Herbst, Jacob Stockdale, Timoney again and David Shanahan compounded the visitors’ misery.
Both Les Kiss and his Dragons counterpart Bernard Jackman made wholesale changes from their victorious starting XVs in round three, although Ulster’s nine personnel switches seemed conservative in comparison to their visitors’ 13.
The John Cooney – Christian Lealiifano half-back partnership with the 100% winning record was rested, giving Paul Marshall and Nelson their chance at scrum-half and out-half respectively. Further changes in the back line brought in the rehabilitated Charles Piutau at full-back, Tommy Bowe at right wing and Darren Cave at outside centre, while inside centre McCloskey and left wing Stockdale retained their places.
In the pack Timoney made his first appearance at Number Eight, while prop Rodney Ah You, lock Robbie Diack and flanker Clive Ross all graduated from the bench. Kyle McCall and Rob Herring completed the front row, with Alan O’Connor partnering Diack in the second row, and Chris Henry captaining the side from the back row.
Ulster proved far from unsettled by the changes, running over their first try within two minutes. Piutau was the architect, creating something from nothing after scooping up a misplaced pass and sashaying his way between two Dragons to pick out Ross. The flanker found his back row colleague Henry, who in turn supplied McCloskey for a fine team try.
Dorian Jones clawed three back with a 35-metre penalty, but Ulster were in irrepressible form and a trademark diagonal from Bowe laid the foundation for try number two, Nelson eventually breaking through the heart of the Dragons defence thanks to a neat dummy.
Three more points followed from Jones before things went from bad to worse for the visitors as they first leaked a penalty try off a strong Ulster rolling maul, then had prop Lloyd Fairbrother sinbnned for his illegal attempts to prevent the score.
Piutau was again instrumental for the bonus-point try on 25 minutes, weaving more wing wizardry before Diack took over with a bullish drive to the line, where Timoney was on hand to apply the finishing touch for a score his performance richly deserved.
There was still time in the half for a textbook forward’s try for each side. First Herbst – a temporary blood replacement for Ah You – bundled over the fifth on the half hour, before hooker Rhys Buckley grabbed a consolation score in the corner for the Dragons off a rolling maul.
Half-Time Score Ulster 33 – Dragons 13
Ulster hit their sixth on 44 minutes, Stockdale capitalising on a stroke of bad luck for Dragons centre Thretton Palamo, who failed to apply downward pressure to Bowe’s grubber behind his own line, leaving the door wide open for the winger who had done well to chase down the kick.
Timoney’s second try five minutes later was perhaps the pick of the bunch, the back row receiving from McCloskey well outside the ‘22’ and swivelling his way clear of three tackles to ground beneath the posts.
Dane Blacker’s breakaway try on 55 minutes was followed by perhaps the loudest cheer of the evening to herald Henderson’s return to the first team, but it was another replacement – scrum-half Shanahan – who made the more immediate impact, notching the eighth try after alertly taking a quick tap penalty.
The game edged to its close with a TMO-overruled try for each side – denying Stockdale of a brace on the Ulster side – but with eight tries in the bag the Kingspan crowd were not overly vociferous in their disapproval.
There was even time in the dying seconds for a third Dragons try, this time for William Talbot-Davies, and a yellow card for Ah You for a poorly-executed tackle led excessively with the shoulder.
Next Ulster travel to Parma on 30th September for a Saturday afternoon kick-off against Conference A outfit Zebre.
Full-Time Score Ulster 52 Dragons 25
Ulster (15 – 9) Charles Piutau; Tommy Bowe, Darren Cave, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Peter Nelson, Paul Marshall
(1 – 8) Kyle McCall, Rob Herring, Rodney Ah You, Robbie Diack, Alan O’Connor, Clive Ross, Chris Henry (c), Nick Timoney
Replacements (16 – 23) John Andrew, Andy Warwick, Wiehahn Herbst, Iain Henderson, Matthew Rea, David Shanahan, Brett Herron, Rob Lyttle
Dragons (15 – 9) Carl Meyer; Adam Hughes, Thretton Palamo, Pat Howard, George Gasson; Dorian Jones, Owain Leonard
(1 – 8) Thomas Davies, Gerard Ellis, Lloyd Fairbrother, Matthew Screech, Rynard Landman, Max Williams, Oliver Griffiths (c), Robson Blake
Replacements (16 – 23) Rhys Buckley, Phil Price, Brok Harris, Joe Davies, Lennon Greggains, Dane Blacker, Angus O’Brien, William Talbot-Davies