Ulster romped through to the PRO12 semi-finals with a six try win against the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

First half scores from Paddy Jackson, Rory Best and Andrew Trimble saw Ulster well set at half time and tries from Chris Henry, Stuart Olding and Franco van der Merwe completed the job in the second. Jackson further boosted his points for the season with five conversions and two penalties. 

The win means Ulster now face Leinster at the RDS in Dublin on Friday 20th May with only a paltry 4,500 tickets available for the travelling Ulster hordes with Leinster too scared to move this one to the Aviva.  🙄  🙄 

This is the sixth game in a row that has went pretty much as predicted and for this one we stated that, “Either team could be leading at the break but I expect Ulster to dominate the second half in a high scoring win.” and that’s how it worked out with Ulster pulling clear after a close first half. 

However, Ulster did take a 14 – 21 lead into the break after a late opportunistic try from Trimble, the always energetic one chasing down an innocuous looking  kick only for the bounce of the ball to wrong foot the defence and end up in the onrushing Trimble’s hands. From there it was a straight race to the line with Trimby keeping far enough in front to make the line.

By that point the lead had already changed twice with the Ospreys opening the scoring, on the 12th minute, after a poor kick by Jackson was returned with interest to set up a five metre scrum. A hit up off the back of the scrum and quick hands saw Dan Biggar cross unopposed under the posts which he converted for the home side to lead 7  – 0. 

The opening score had come somewhat against the run of play and Ulster responded within five minutes with Jackson matching his opposite number with a converted try, the score created after good work from Iain Henderson and Rory Best was quickly moved to Jared Payne who passed inside for Jackson to cross. 

Ulster took the lead on the 27th minute when Best stepped his way to the line from close range but the Ospreys hit back through Josh Matavesi to level the score on the 37th minute, just before Trimble’s individual effort. With all tries being converted the teams turned round with Ulster leading 14 – 21. 

Jackson knocked over a penalty shortly after the restart to further extend Ulster’s lead and the vital bonus point try followed on the 56th minute after a piece of quick thinking from Henry. The move started just outside Ulster’s 22 with a turnover by the impressive Pete Browne. Stuart McCloskey and Jared Payne made headway down the left to take the play into the Ospreys’ 22 before Craig Gilroy joined in with a dart at the line. It looked as though the move was over when the Ospreys forced a turnover but Rhys Webb rolled the ball back to his own line and the quick thinking Henry secured the score with his first touch, the ball now in play. 

Jackson again added the extras and he was on hand minutes later to knock over a penalty to take the lead to 14 – 34 and with twenty points between the teams lead the game was as good as done as they went into the final quarter.  

Both teams emptied their benches but, benefiting the occasion, the tries continued to come. Ospreys’ replacement Tom Grabham grabbed a brace to secure the try bonus for the home side but Ulster maintained the 20 point differential with Olding and van der Merwe adding tries five and six. Jackson and Biggar converted one each to give a final score of Ospreys 26 Ulster 46. 

Ulster: Jared Payne, Andrew Trimble, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Craig Gilroy, Paddy Jackson, Ruan Pienaar, Callum Black, Rory Best, Ricky Lutton, Pete Browne, Franco van der Merwe, Iain Henderson, Chris Henry, Sean Reidy. Replacements: Rob Herring, Kyle McCall, Andrew Warwick, Robbie Diack, Roger Wilson, Paul Marshall, Stuart Olding, Darren Cave.