Kid Smith sparkles but Quins swamped after break
JOHN Cooney scored 27 points as six-try Ulster punished Harlequins late on at Kingspan Stadium to claim back-to-back Champions Cup wins and keep themselves in the hunt for the knock-out stages.
Harlequins were outclassed in the end but John Kingston’s side caused plenty of trouble for the home side as Marcus Smith pulled the strings beautifully and scored his first try for the team.
Ross Chisholm also scored for Quins before the break, but despite being outscored two tries to one, Ulster still led 16-12 at the interval as three Cooney penalties kept their score accumulating.
But Craig Gilroy and Charles Piutau ran in tries in the first 11 minutes of the second half to pull Ulster clear, which eventually saw the flood gates open after Kyle Sinckler’s needless sin-binning.
“There’s a huge amount of passion and pride there for the Harlequins group,” said Kingston. “The scoreboard wasn’t a fair reflection, but six tries to four was about right.
“What we’ve learned is that we have given away too many easy tries. What we’ve got to do is immediately turn to next week.”
Last weekend in the snow at the Stoop, Ulster showed they had a real hunger to fight for every 5050 ball, but in the opening half in Belfast that urgency was largely absent.
Two Cooney penalties had Ulster 6-0 up after ten minutes, but four minutes later we saw the brilliance of Smith when he scored in the corner following an intercept and break from Renaldo Bothma.
Crucially though, Ulster hit back in the 18th minute when Stuart McCloskey kicked through and scored after Christian Leali’ifano’s chip. Cooney converted for a 13-5 lead.
Smith was a tormentor of Ulster, though, and he was twice involved in the build-up to Charlie Walker’s try on the halfhour, including the final pass that send the winger through a hole to score.
But Cooney’s penalty six minutes from the interval gave the home side a fourpoint cushion they hardly deserved.
Ulster reacted well after a dressing-down from coach Les Kiss and a splendid try from Gilroy saw them switch twice before the winger scored in the right corner.
Cooney added the conversion and another penalty for a 26-12 lead, before Gilroy was again involved as Piutau crashed over from close range. The Bristol-bound full-back limped off soon after with a knee injury.
While Piutau was down receiving treatment, Chisholm ran around the Ulster defence to score, but a shoulder charge from Sinckler saw him sinbinned after 61 minutes. With the tighthead gone, Alan O’Connor stretched to score Ulster’s bonus point try moments later.
Quins came again and captain Dave Ward scored their bonus point try with 12 minutes remaining to close the lead to 14 points. But it mattered little as Cooney got the try he deserved in the 72nd minute, before replacement Andrew Trimble scored their sixth.