Efficient Ulster get it done
Ulster are still in the hunt in Heineken Cup Pool Four after claiming a bonus-point win over Aironi at Ravenhill.
Last Updated: 09/12/11 10:00pm
Ulster are still in the hunt in Heineken Cup Pool Four after claiming a bonus-point win over Aironi at Ravenhill.
The hosts ran in five tries through man-of-the-match Stephen Ferris, Adam D'Arcy, Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall and 19-year-old Paddy Jackson.
Ulster showed their intent pretty much from the off, spurning an early penalty chance to go for the corner.
It did not pay off during Ulster's bright opening nor indeed the next time they tried it after just 10 minutes.
But just after the first quarter they made the breakthrough when a long pass from Ruan Pienaar saw fellow South African Pedrie Wannenburg pop a pass to Ferris and with some space out on the left, the Ireland flanker powered through one tackle and scored in the left corner.
Ian Humphreys knocked over the conversion but Tito Tebaldi narrowed the home side's lead to 7-3 three minutes later with a penalty.
Tebaldi should have put the Italians a point behind but missed a fairly run-of-the-mill effort after 32 minutes.
The home side were also given a considerable boost by the sin-binning of full-back Giulio Toniolatti and with seven men now in the Aironi scrum, Ulster shoved them backwards and won the put-in in the Italians' 22 late in the half.
Pressure
From there, after a couple of minutes of constant pressure, full-back D'Arcy scored in the same corner as Ferris and with Humphreys this time missing the extras Ulster went in at the break leading 12-3.
They hit the ground running on the re-start with a great wraparound from Pienaar with Rory Best allowed D'Arcy to put Trimble in some space though the Ireland winger had to work hard for his score, which was unconverted by Humphreys to make it 17-3.
With Aironi full-back Toniolatti coming back from the bin just after Trimble's score, Ulster had put on a useful 10 points in his absence before Stefan Terblanche, on his debut, Marshall and Tom Court were brought on for Trimble, Pienaar and Paddy McCallister respectively.
The impact was swift as from a lineout take from Johann Muller, Simone Favaro strayed offside and Marshall scored from a quick tap for the bonus score. Humphreys slotted the conversion and Ulster led 24-3.
The icing on the Ulster cake arrived when sub Jackson ran a nice loop and made the try line and Humphreys kicked his third conversion for Ulster to lead 31-3.
Replacement hooker Tommaso D'Apice scored a late consolation for Aironi, who will have an immedaite chance of revenge in the re-match in Italy next week.
