Five-try Leinster dominate Ulster

Leinster moved closer to a place in the Magners League play-offs on Saturday with a 34-26 bonus point win over Ulster at the RDS.

Leinster extended their winning home run in the regular season to 25 matches in the process.

Ulster have not beaten a fellow Irish province this season and never looked likely to end the sequence as Leinster maintained their push for a domestic and European double.

Hooker Richardt Strauss, man of the match in Leinster's Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leicester, went over for the first of three early tries after just five minutes, to be quickly followed onto the scoresheet by Ireland internationals Luke Fitzgerald and Shane Horgan.

The bonus point try was bagged just before half-time as Ulster, down to 14 men following the sin-binning of No.8 Pedrie Wannenburg, were unable to stop an impressive forward drive from the hosts that resulted in Heinke van der Merwe touching down.

Three penalties from fly-half Ian Humphreys and one from Ruan Pienaar accounted for Ulster's first half points. The one-way traffic continued after the re-start with Horgan gathering his own delicate chip for his second and Leinster's fifth of the night. Jonathan Sexton added his third conversion of the evening.

When Wannenburg burrowed over from close range after sustained pressure Ulster gave themselves a glimmer of hope of getting back into the contest at 19-34.

But they were unable to cut the deficit further until the 75th minute with Craig Gilroy's score proving too little too late. As a result of the win, Leinster leapfrog Ulster into second and further their hopes of a home semi-final in the play-offs.

The scorers:

For Leinster:
Tries: Strauss, Fitzgerald, Horgan 2, Van der Merwe
Cons: Sexton 3
Pens: Sexton

For Ulster:
Tries: Wannenburg, Gilroy
Cons: Pienaar 2

Pens: Humphreys 3, Pienaar

Yellow card: Wannenburg (Ulster - 33rd min)

Leinster: 15 Isa Nacewa, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Eoin O'Malley, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Leo Cullen (c), 3 Stan Wright, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Heinke van der Merwe
Replacements: 16 Jason Harris-Wright, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Mike Ross, 19 Nathan Hines, 20 Sean O'Brien/Dominic Ryan, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 David Kearney.

Ulster: 15 Adam D'Arcy, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Nevin Spence, 12, Paddy Wallace, 11 Craig Gilroy, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Robbie Diack, 5 Dan Tuohy, 4 Tim Barker, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Tom Court
Replacements:
Replacements: 16 Andy Kyriacou, 17 Paddy McAllister, 18 Bryan Young, 19 Neil McComb, 20 Willie Faloon, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Darren Cave, 23 Conor.

Venue: RDS Dublin
Referee: Pascal Gauzere