Ulster defeat Cardiff Blues to extend home league winning run to 14 matches
Last Updated: 24/10/15 3:43pm
Ulster secured their third win from five Guinness PRO12 matches as they claimed a bonus-point 24-17 victory over the Cardiff Blues in Belfast on Friday night.
Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall, Stuart McCloskey and man-of-the-match Nick Williams went over for tries, with the victory extending their unbeaten league record at home to 14 games.
It was also their third bonus-point win - all of them coming at the Kingspan Stadium - after they had lost twice on the road.
The Blues contributed to a lively contest and began the strongest, with Rhys Patchell slotting the first of his four penalties in the third minute after Wiehahn Herbst had been penalised at a scrum.
Ulster began to improve towards the end of the first quarter and a powerful charge from Williams led to Trimble crossing over on the right, with the try given after the TMO was consulted over a potential forward pass from Louis Ludik.
Ian Humphreys missed the tricky conversion and the Blues duly struck back, Patchell making no mistake with the long-range penalty to make it to 6-5 to the visitors when Lewis Stevenson was guilty of an infringement at a lineout.
Blues ended the opening half in the ascendancy and with skipper Josh Navidi prominent, it was little surprise that a penalty came their way when Sean Reidy was penalised after a tackle.
Patchell again kicked the three points but Ulster finished the half with a huge surge at the Blues' line.
It led to Josh Turnbull being sin-binned right on the whistle after his boot collided with Marshall's face and from the resulting penalty, McCloskey gathered the ball up and Marshall dived over.
Humphreys added the extras to take took his league points tally to 500 as Ulster left the field 12-9 up at the break.
Ulster continued to make the most of the man advantage with Williams getting a score off the back of a huge driving maul after the restart and Humphreys again added the conversion.
The Blues conceded again even after Turnbull returned to the action, with McCloskey securing Ulster's bonus point with his 49th-minute effort, although it went unconverted by Humphreys, who was then replaced by returning Ireland World Cup squad member Paddy Jackson.
Herbst was sin-binned in the 55th minute for blocking Tavis Knoyle and Navidi barged over two minutes later from a lineout for the visitors' only try - Patchell missed with the attempted conversion.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, another breakdown infringement saw Blues move to within losing bonus-point territory as Tatchell fired over his fourth penalty of the contest.
But the Blues then had Aled Summerhill binned for upending Craig Gilroy in the 73rd minute to effectively end any prospect they had of battling back in the final stages.
