Ulster grind down Scarlets to leapfrog Leinster

Ulster moved into second place in the United Rugby Championship after a bonus-point win over Scarlets at Ravenhill.

With the Six Nations starting next week, both teams were without the services of many frontliners and they served up a stop-start affair, with Ulster eventually grinding down their opponents with three tries in a 15-minute second-half spell.

The victory sees Dan McFarland's side leapfrog Leinster in the table ahead of the defending champions’ trip to Cardiff on Saturday evening.

Ulster may have been without their Ireland contingent of James Hume, Michael Lowry, Robert Baloucoune, Rob Herring, Tom O'Toole, Nick Timoney, Kieran Treadwell and Iain Henderson, who were away in Portugal at a training camp, and missing the injured Jordi Murphy and Jacob Stockdale, but their unavailable list paled in comparison to their Welsh visitors.

Among 17 men out injured were Rhys Patchell, Ken Owens and Leigh Halfpenny, while Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, Johnny McNicholl, Gareth Davies, Ryan Elias and Wyn Jones are in national camp.

The flow of the game wasn't helped either by three injury stoppages in the opening quarter, one of which saw prop Marty Moore off the field for 14 minutes, while Scarlets centre Tyler Morgan also needed treatment after colliding with Dan Jones’ knee.

But flashes of skill from Nathan Doak, Billy Burns and Ethan McIlroy, deployed at full-back with Lowry among the Ireland call-ups, were enough to keep the home crowd interested.

Angus Curtis couldn’t hold a pass close to the line and the Ulster pack was then held up in the in-goal area as the Welsh side’s defence held firm.

By the time Craig Gilroy, who signed a new deal this week, was yellow-carded in the 27th minute for a shoulder to the head of Tom