Ulster 40
Dragons 19

Michael Walsh reports from Kingspan Stadium

ULSTER CONTINUE TO do all they can do to try and wrestle back second place in the United Rugby Championship after another bonus-point win, this time a 40-19 success over the Dragons.

Hooker Tom Stewart broke the URC’s single-season try-scoring record by crossing twice from mauls and adding another from open play for his second hat-trick this season, taking his overall tally to 16, and that, along with further scores from David McCann, Nick Timoney and a penalty try, served up a fourth straight domestic win for Dan McFarland’s men.

The province are up to second temporarily thanks to this latest victory, leapfrogging the DHL Stormers, although they will need help from Munster in Cape Town on Saturday if they are to stay there in their bid to claim home advantage in a potential semi-final.

However, it took everything they had to pick up the five points on this occasion as they found some stern resistance in the form of the Dragons, who brought it back to within a score midway through the second half but ultimately couldn’t hang onto Ulster’s coat-tails.

After their European exit at the hands of Leinster two weeks ago, this was the soft landing Ulster needed on their return to URC action, although it looked less than ideal early on when Ireland prop Tom O’Toole was forced off due to injury and was later spotted on crutches.

Things looked up when McCann cantered over for their first try of the night, a flowing move ending with the flanker sprinting over in the corner, but quickly Angus O’Brien replied for the visitors when he was on hand to finish off Taine Basham’s thunderous charge into the 22.

But the maul would take over late in the half to give them the comfortable lead at half-time, Stewart piloting both over, the latter of which came after Elliot Dee was sin-binned for the visitors for sacking a previous set-piece.

The hooker’s hat-trick try was the pick of the bunch, though, coming just ten minutes after the restart as Ethan McIlroy and McCann exchanged passes, the flanker set Jacob Stockdale away and the winger was able to put Stewart over in the corner.

Just when the game looked like it was meandering to an uneventful finish, suddenly the Dragons sparked into life with two tries in two minutes to pull back to within a score, Dee sniping over from the back of a maul and then Rhodri Williams capitalising on a turnover by dummying and crossing.

But any nerves within the Kingspan Stadium crowd were abated as Nick Timoney went over for their fifth try of the night, cutting a fine line off John Andrew’s short pass to scythe the Dragons’ defensive line in two and ending any hopes of a shock result on the night.

An 80th-minute penalty try for Ashton Hewitt’s deliberate knock-on on his own try line was simply icing on the cake for Ulster, who continue to build momentum into the play-offs nicely.

Ulster scorers:
Tries: McCann, Stewart (3), Timoney, Penalty
Conversions: Cooney (4), Penalty

Dragons’ scorers:

Tries: O’Brien, Dee, Williams
Conversions: O’Brien, Reed

ULSTER: Mike Lowry (Ethan McIlroy 45-56); Craig Gilroy (Ethan McIlroy 77), James Hume, Stuart McCloskey (Stewart Moore 65), Jacob Stockdale; Billy Burns (Nathan Doak 77), John Cooney; (1-8) Eric O’Sullivan (Andrew Warwick 23), Tom Stewart (John Andrew 67), Tom O’Toole (Jeff Toomaga-Allen 6); Alan O’Connor, Sam Carter (Kieran Treadwell 58); David McCann, Marcus Rea, Duane Vermeulen (Nick Timoney 54).

DRAGONS: Jordan Williams; Rio Dyer (Lewis Jones 65), Jared Rosser, Max Clark (Aneurin Owen 53), Ashton Hewitt; Angus O’Brien (Will Reed 53), Rhodri Williams; (1-8) Rhodri Jones (Josh Reynolds 67), Elliot Dee (Brodie Coghlan 63), Leon Brown (Lloyd Fairbrother 28); Ben Carter, Matthew Screech; George Nott (Sean Lonsdale 57), Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright (George Young 76).
Yellow cards: Elliot Dee (37′), Ashton Hewitt (80′)

Referee: Ben Blain (Scotland)