United Rugby Championship: Ulster beat Sharks to seal home quarter-final, Benetton hammer Cardiff while Bulls win at Ospreys

Ulster put in an impressive showing to defeat the Sharks 24-21 in a result that seals a home quarter-final in the United Rugby Championship.

Going into the match in fifth place with the Sharks sitting third, this victory for Ulster moves them provisionally second ahead of Saturday’s other games.

They now wait to discover whether a potential semi-final will be home or away, while the Sharks will hope the Scarlets and Leinster do them a huge favour.

Following a lively opening with plenty of open play from both sides, the first points fell to Ulster through a 16th-minute John Cooney penalty after the Sharks had been pinged for being offside.

10 minutes later and with Ulster beginning to get some momentum in the contest – in tandem with the Sharks beginning to make too many errors – the Irish province began to win a series of penalties and put one into the corner.

They moved the ball off the maul and though Stuart McCloskey was stifled in the midfield, the ball came back to the busy Billy Burns, who shifted it long and wide to Ethan McIlroy, giving the wing the chance to attack the try-line, draw the cover and throw an inside pass to the supporting Mike Lowry, who touched down.

It was no more than Ulster deserved and Cooney’s conversion ensured they had a 10-0 lead.

Though the Sharks continued to give the ball air, they were unable to score and came the nearest to breaking their duck when Curwin Bosch attempted a long-range penalty which went wide, preserving Ulster’s 10-point lead at the break.

That became 17-0 three minutes after the restart when McCloskey smashed through several defenders to score under the posts, allowing Cooney to convert.

The Sharks had to respond but were unable to do so until the hour mark when newly