Ulster give Cardiff the Blues

Four tries in the space of 20 second-half minutes gave Ulster a thrilling 37-15 victory at Cardiff in Sunday's Magners League clash.

The hosts went into the break with a 15-8 advantage but had literally no answer to David Humphreys' side, who were beating their Welsh opponents for the first time in eight matches.

Ulster dominated at the scrum throughout but were initially unable to turn their superiority into points as the Blues were happy to throw the ball around at will.

A miss pass by Ceri Sweeney sent full-back Chris Czekaj away and winger Tom James raced 60 yards before being brought to ground just short of the line as Cardiff bossed the opening stages.

And they were first to cross when Kiwi centre Casey Laulala picked up a charged-down Ulster clearance before side-stepping two defenders to score, with Sweeney adding the extras.

But within five minutes Ulster had pulled five points back, making ground down the left before spreading it right for Craig Gilroy to score with a man over.

Yellow card

Ian Humphreys put the visitors in front with a long-range penalty before Cardiff lost key forward Xavier Rush through injury, but a deliberate knock-on brought a yellow card for Adam D'Arcy and the Blues capitalised with an extra man, James - who had been denied by D'Arcy - going over after Rhys Thomas and Michael Paterson had been held up.

Sweeney missed the conversion but made amends with a penalty to give the hosts a seven point advantage at the turnaround.

However, it was all change after the break with the visitors introducing international centres Andrew Trimble and Paddy Wallace, and immediately they looked more dangerous.

Humphreys narrowed the gap with a 56-minute penalty and moments later put in a little kick-through that Gilroy collected before sprinting past defenders to cross under the posts for his second of the match.

The restored D'Arcy powered down the left to score the third a minute later and the final quarter belonged to Ulster, replacement Willie Faloon clinching the bonus with a 30-yard run to the line.

And when Wallace was gifted an opportunity to run in unapposed from deep inside his own half after a Gareth Williams grubber kick went wrong, it spelled the end for Blues with Humphreys converting for a third time.