Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BONUS BAWL
Ulster lament lack of fourth try as Kiss demands better
ULSTER coach Les Kiss knows there is room for improvement after his side failed to get a bonus point despite leading 21-0 after an hour in Treviso.
But he was pleased to maintain the winning start to the season and wants to push on when they entertain champions Scarlets at Kingspan Stadium on Friday.
“They have never been easy here, they are a spirited team at home,” said Kiss after Saturday’s clash.
“When we were three tries up we made a few changes and we were a bit lazy in our skillset at times and weren’t as complete as we would have liked to have been.”
Ulster skipper Andrew Trimble, 12 years to the day since making his debut against Cardiff, was the hero as he scored two tries in the opening half to lead 14-0.
And when new Irish international Jacob Stockdale pushed that out to 21-0 on the hour, Ulster would have hoped to secure a second bonus point win in a row. Trimble, 32, admitted: “Our concentration slipped a little bit and we didn’t focus on the next task in hand and maybe there was an element of us thinking about the bonus point.
“But this is a tough place to come, they threaten you with a lot of pace and a lot of width. This isn’t like it was six or seven years ago, this is a serious side and we had to play very well to win here.”
John Cooney, drafted in from Connacht to replace Ruan Pienaar, produced another fine No9 display and set Trimble up for his second try after 24 minutes, as well as converting all three tries.