ANOTHER 5 KEEPS THE DREAM ALIVE
ULSTER boosted their hopes of European Champions Cup qualification with a bonus-point win over Scarlets to bring them a maximum 10 points from their back-to-back clashes with the Welsh side.
John Cooney scored 15 points of Ulster’s total with the bonus-point try, two conversions and two penalties, while second row Iain Henderson bagged two tries with Jacob Stockdale also crossing.
The five points brought Ulster level on points with Pool Four leaders Racing 92 ahead of their game with Leicester Tigers and ended bottom side Scarlets’ already slim chances of making the last eight.
Ulster led 10-3 at half-time and though the Scarlets through a Jonathan Davies try levelled things up, Dan Mcfarland’s side pushed on with Stockdale, Henderson - bagging his second and Cooney crossing.
On a miserable evening of swirling wind and rain at the Kingspan Stadium, Ulster got the scoreboard moving early when Scarlets skipper Ken Owens was penalised for not rolling away and Cooney landed his first penalty after eight minutes.
Will Addison then crossed the Scarlets line on 13 minutes following a cross-kick from Billy Burns and assist from Henry Speight only for the score to be ruled out for a forward pass.
Speight went close to scoring on 24 minutes but failed to gather the ball from Addison’s kick through. Ulster had a penalty, though, and put huge pressure on which resulted in prop Wyn Jones being yellow-carded for illegally playing the ball.
Ulster increased the pressure, going for scrums off a series of penalties before Henderson was driven over at the posts on 32 minutes. Cooney converted to put the home side 10-0 up.
Rhys Patchell’s 38th-minute penalty gave the visitors their first points just before Jones’ return from the bin.
Eight minutes after the restart, the game exploded into life when Gareth Davies intercepted a pass on his own line and after running into Ulster’s half his cross-kick was pounced on by Jonathan Davies after Speight and Steff Evans had overrun the ball.
Patchell converted to tie the scores only for Ulster to respond immediately when Burns’ chip over the top was gathered by Stockdale who beat two defenders to touch down.
Cooney missed the difficult conversion and Ulster now led 15-10 which became 18-10 when he kicked a 57th-minute penalty.
Five minutes later and Henderson had his second when he powered over from close range.
The bonus-point score came in the 67th minute when Rory Best now Ulster’s most capped player in Europe with 72 caps - drove off a maul to the line before Cooney followed up to score.
Scarlets managed a consolation score from Tom Pyride in the 78th minute which went unconverted.