Ulster Rugby

The first half was a ding-dong battle as both sides threw everything at one another, but the Vodacom Bulls had the edge on the scoreboard with a handy 20-12 ...

Penalty goals: Smith (3). Conversions: Chris Smith (2). Ulster 32 (12) – Tries: Rob Baloucoune, Tom Steward (3).

Robert Baloucoune gave Ulster an early lead but Springbok full-back Kurt-Lee Arendse responded with a fine score. Stewart restored Ulster's advantage but the ...

Doak landed a superb conversion from the touchline. The Bulls came again and Smith's penalty brought the margin down to three, but the ever-reliable boot of Doak restored Ulster's six-point margin. Down to 14 players, the Bulls held out for the remaining nine minutes, but Stewart soon completed his hat-trick with a brilliant finish. Smith converted and added a long-range penalty to give the Bulls an eight-point lead at the break. In a half where most of the play was spent in the respective 22s, the Bulls went in ahead at the break as the power of their forward pack edged towards the line and Burger sniped in to capitalise on the stretched Ulster defence. But the hosts eventually capitalised when Stewart broke off a maul to drive over for his first try of the night and 11th of the season.

A Tom Stewart hat-trick helped Ulster secure their spot in the United Rugby Championship's top four as they powered their way past the Vodacom Bulls at ...

To their credit, the Bulls spent much of ensuing minutes on the front-foot only to be undone by a stout defensive stand on their own line. They'd hold out from the set-piece this time but Stewart wasn't to be denied his third score. Again Stewart was the man applying the finishing touches and Doak's conversion made it a one-point game. Their route back into things would be aided by the TMO. Still, Jake White's side will have been heartened by how they handled the sin binning period. After Bulls were pinged for crossing, Billy Burns went down the line and Ulster played off the top of the line-out.

A hat-trick of tries from hooker Tom Stewart helped Ulster defeat the Bulls 32-23 and make it three United Rugby Championship wins in a row.

Elrigh Louw was yellow carded for the visitors and then Ulster drove Stewart over for his second try, with Doak's conversion cutting the lead to one point. Ulster responded in the 25th minute. Smith converted to put the Bulls 10-5 ahead.

Dan McFarland's side had trailed at the interval as tries from Kurt-Lee Arendse and Zak Burger, as well as ten points from the boot of Chris Smith, had the ...

In response, however, Ulster turned to what they do best and utilised the driving maul to take them back into the lead. Instead, John Cooney – just off the bench – rounded off the scoring with the final kick of the game as he slotted a late penalty to leave the Bulls with nothing for their efforts and keep Ulster very much in the hunt for second place. However, they failed to heed that warning and after Smith had put the Bulls on the board with his first penalty of the night, they struck for their first try as Canan Moodie was the latest player to break the line and he had Arendse on his shoulder to take it the rest of the way.