The hosts Ulster secured a bonus point win at Ravenhill on Friday evening as a lacklustre Edinburgh side failed to score any points.

“In the second half we had nine penalties against us and the two tries that killed us came from when Mike was sent off for a yellow card. I thought that [yellow card] was the turning point of the game.

“The final penalty count ended up 14-4 and when you get a penalty count like that and a card, that’s the difference. Having said that, Ulster deserved the win on the night.”

edinburghrugby

In front of a near full house at Kingspan Stadium, the game began at pace, the visitors making the first foray into Ulster territory. A series of reset scrums in both halves slowed things down, however, the home side emerging stronger and pressing for points triggering some frantic defending from Edinburgh.

After 13 minutes, however, Paddy Jackson scored the first of his two penalties, Edinburgh pinged for coming in at the side; five minutes later Edinburgh had the chance to level the score after Tonks was taken in the air. Forty metres out, from the touchline, was a bridge too far for Jack Cuthbert

Rejuvenated, Ulster dotted down for the try on the 25 minute mark, Andrew Trimble crossing as Visser missed the tackle, Jackson adding the extras and then some, in the shape of another penalty to put the home side comfortably 13-0 ahead at half time.

With Grant Gilchrist not returning to the field after a knock to the nose and Tonks replaced by McLennan, Ulster started the second half by pushing deep into Edinburgh territory, but missed further chances through spilled ball and solid defence from the visitors.

Scrum infringements put paid to an opportunity to put points on the board further into the second half, and Allan Dell made his first team debut, replacing BT Academy player Rory Sutherland, who had put in a solid shift against experienced counterparts.

A raft of replacements around the 60 minute mark gave fresh legs to the cause however a yellow card for captain Mike Coman paved the way for the inevitable second try, from Williams, followed by another five pointer from Rory Best, the result of a driving maul, with the extras added by Olding.

The bonus point score completed the brace for Trimble, with Visser wrong-footed in the lead-up, and with one minute on the clock that tied up the game.

Solomons added: “I think we made a rod for our own back because we did really well against Munster, we fell off our game and really didn’t perform well against Connacht and then had a poor performance against Ospreys and tonight we played against a strong Ulster side and were on the wrong end of a penalty count.

“We know we’re a decent side and there’s no reason, if we play well and put in a good performance that we’re going to get the result next weekend.”

Team lineups

pro12rugby

Ulster

V

Edinburgh

P

D

C

T

Pos

Player

Player

Pos

T

C

D

P

Louis Ludik

15

Greig Tonks

2

Andrew Trimble

14

Jack Cuthbert

Jared Payne

13

Sam Beard

Stuart McCloskey

12

Andries Strauss

Tommy Bowe

11

Tim Visser

2

1

Paddy Jackson

10

Phil Burleigh

Paul Marshall

9

Sean Kennedy

Ruaidhri Murphy

1

Rory Sutherland

1

Rory Best

2

Ross Ford

Wiehahn Herbst

3

John Andress

Alan O’Connor

4

Anton Bresler

Franco van der Merwe

5

Grant Gilchrist

Robbie Diack

6

Mike Coman

Chris Henry

7

Roddy Grant

Roger Wilson

8

Cornell du Preez

Replacements

Rob Herring

16

James Hilterbrand

Andrew Warwick

17

Allan Dell

Bronson Ross

18

WP Nel

Lewis Stevenson

19

Ollie Atkins

1

Nick Williams

20

Tomas Leonardi

Michael Heaney

21

Sam Hidalgo-Clyne

1

Stuart Olding

22

Tom Heathcote

Darren Cave

23

Nick McLennan

Man of the Match: Stuart McCluskey