Bonus night for Ulster
Ulster crossed for four tries in a bonus-point victory over Edinburgh at a windswept Murrayfield.
Last Updated: 06/01/12 9:55pm
Ulster crossed for four tries in a bonus-point victory over Edinburgh at a windswept Murrayfield.
Rory Best, Dan Tuohy, Andrew Trimble and Darren Cave all touched down for the visitors, while Ian Humphreys and Ruan Pienaar contributed the remaining points with the boot.
Edinburgh's points came courtesy of touchdowns by Nick De Luca and Alun Walker, plus 10 points from the boot of skipper Greig Laidlaw.
The Irish outfit opened the scoring inside three minutes when the hosts strayed offside in their 22 and left Humphreys a simple penalty kick. The same player repeated the dose to double his side's tally after a similar award nine minutes later.
Despite the scoreline the opening exchanges had been evenly matched and it was the hosts who looked the more dangerous on the attack.
Tim Visser almost broke through when he latched on to a sweetly-judged cross-kick from Phil Godman, but the winger was bundled into touch 10 metres short of the line
The opening try of the night arrived shortly afterwards. De Luca pounced after a series of fumbles in the Ulster defence and gathered the loose ball before plunging over for the score. Laidlaw added the extra two points then extended his side's advantage with a well-struck penalty.
That advantage dwindled when Ruan Pienaar assumed the kicking duties from the injured Humphreys and stroked over a penalty.
Pressure
Ulster capped a spell of pressure with a slick handling move that saw the ball moved left then recycled and switched right where Tuohy fed Best and the hooker went over for the try.
The link man for the first score was replacement Paul Marshall and he again provided the quickfire service that saw the ball shipped out to Tuohy and he powered over at the corner to extend the Ulster lead with 29 minutes on the clock.
Edinburgh finished the first period on the attack and Laidlaw reduced the deficit when he landed a penalty with the final kick of the half.
Pienaar had been off-target with both conversion attempts but he rediscovered his range to bang over a penalty shortly after the restart, and he was on the mark with the conversion of his side's third try.
That score was the product of a searing break by Marshall who broke from halfway and darted between two defenders before slipping the ball to Trimble who evaded Visser to touch down.
Edinburgh hauled themselves back into the contest in the 59th minute when Walker gathered after a close-range lineout and thundered over, with Laidlaw's conversion narrowing the gap to 12 points.
But six minutes from full-time Marshall again broke from deep and exchanged passes with Trimble before freeing Cave for the bonus-point try. Pienaar again added the conversion then added a late penalty.
