Ulster hammer Caerphilly

Caerphilly 15, Ulster 67 (full-time)

Ulster significantly improved their chances of reaching the Celtic League quarter-finals with an emphatic eight-try demolition of Caerphilly at Virginia Park.

The result saw the 1999 Heineken European Cup winners leapfrog Llanelli into fourth place in Group A to effectively set up a winner-takes-all clash with the Scarlets at Ravenhill Park on October 25.

In truth the visitors did not have to work very hard for their biggest ever win in this competition against a thoroughly disjointed and demoralised Caerphilly outfit.

Irish international out-half David Humphreys gave Ulster a first minute lead with a 40-meter penalty and he landed a similar effort five minutes later.

Those early goals set the tone for much of what followed as Ulster took advantage of every scoring chance which came their way while Caerphilly squandered theirs.

Two further Humphreys penalties pushed Ulster into a double-figure lead before No 8 Tony McWharter crossed for their opening try after 24 minutes.

Hooker Matt Sexton was then yellow-carded for failing to retreat 10 metres, allowing debutant outside-half Fionn McLaughlin to take a penalty.

Humphreys slotted over a fifth penalty on the half-hour, while replacement centre Shane Stewart rounded off a well constructed move for Ulster’s second try.

Scrum-half Allen Chilten collected an injury-time try for the hosts but they turned round at the interval trailing 27-8.

And any hopes the Castletown men may have had of staging a second half rally were swiftly dispelled as Neil Best and Warren Borsnihan were driven over for copycat tries within four minutes of the restart.

What ensued was then something of a procession as Ulster seemingly scored at will.

Jonathan Bell, Sexton, Best and Tyrone Howe collected additional tries, with Humphreys ending up with a personal haul of 27 points via six conversions and five penalties.

Caerphilly had the last word through Chilten’s second try, goaled by McLaughlin - but it did little to provide them with any meaningful consolation.