Ulster Gun Down Edinburgh To Stay On Top

Ulster 37 - 0 Edinburgh Rugby Ravenhill   Att: 6,328 Referee: Nigel Whitehouse Friday 26th March 2004, 19:30

Ulster extended their lead at the top of the Celtic League with an impressive five star showing to stun the Scottish side into submission at Ravenhill

The bumper crowd at Ravenhill witnessed the awesome power of the Ulster forwards stifle the scru,m, scupper the visiting lineout and dominate in the loose, with backrower Neil Best having a fine game. This provided the platform for the back division to shine and former Ireland winger Tyrone Howe scored two tries and outside-half Adam Larkin ended the night scoring 17 points. Larkin opened the scoring in the third minute after Edinburgh were penalised after taking the ball into contact. Six minutes later Ulster struck again. Weak Edinburgh tackling gave Best the chance break into the open space, draw Hugo Southwell and feed Tyrone Howe who galloped in from 30 metres out. Larkin added the two points and Ulster were 10-0 in front. Ulster came close to crossing the Edinburgh line on two occasions before Larkin landed his second penalty after 23 minutes to make it 13-0. That lead became 18-0 three minutes later when Howe touched down in the left corner for his second score - which Larkin failed to convert. Then, just on half time, Edinburgh suffered a further blow when skipper Graeme Burns was sent to the bin after killing the ball at a ruck. The visitors just about held on to keep the score at 18-0 at the turnaround. It did not take Ulster long to make an impact after the restart and Matt Sexton barged over under the posts, giving Larkin an easy conversion to make it 25-0 to the home side after 47 minutes. The bonus point duly came just after the hour when an Andy Ward break saw replacement Paddy Wallace gallop over under the posts. Larkin missed the simple conversion but Ulster were out of sight at 30-0. On the stroke of full-time, Adam Larkin went over - his successful score was the last act of the game.

Ulster V Edinburgh Rugby   P D C T Pos Player Player Pos T C D P   Bryn Cunningham 15 Hugo Southwell James Topping 14 Craig Joiner Shane Stewart 13 Marcus Di Rollo Paul Steinmetz 12 Alistair Dickson 2 Tyrone Howe 11 Matt Dey 2 3 1 Adam Larkin 10 Ander Monro Kieran Campbell 9 Graeme Burns Ronan McCormack 1 Ramin Mathieson 1 Matt Sexton 2 Dougie Hall Rod Moore 3 Joel Brannigan Rowan Frost 4 Guy Perrett Matt McCullough 5 Alastair Kellock Neil Best 6 Andrew Dall Neil McMillan 7 Simon Cross Andy Ward 8 Craig Harrison Replacements Paul Shields 16 Andrew Kelly Bryan Young 17 Murray Driver Gary Longwell 18 Nathan Pike Warren Brosnihan 19 Ben Fisher Neil Doak 20 Rory Lawson 1 Paddy Wallace 21 Alistair Warnock Scott Young 22 Conan Sharman Penalty Tries 0 0

All Pictures: ©  http://www.inpho.ie/, Huw Evans Agency,  Martin Stuart