Solomons rues earlier defeat

Ulster coach Alan Solomons was encouraged by his side’s performance in their 22-0 win over Gwent Dragons even though it was not enough to prevent their exit from the Heineken Cup.

David Humphreys turned in another excellent performance with a superb opportunist try to top things off before he left the field injured in the second half.

“In the first half we were outstanding in difficult conditions,” Solomons said.

“In the second half we did create opportunities but we simply couldn’t take them. But at the end it’s a comprehensive win and we managed to retain our unbeaten record at Ravenhill.

“We paid a heavy price for not beating Gwent away in our first game,” Solomons added, as speculation regarding his future at Ulster increases.

Ulster opened the scoring after four minutes when a Humphreys blindside break put Tyrone Howe into space and the winger found Paul Shields on his shoulder.

The Ulster hooker smashed through some ineffective Dragons tackling for a try which Humphreys failed to convert.

The Dragons immediately upped the ante but a casual drop-goal attempt under the posts from Craig Warlow was wide.

The visitors looked to have got themselves in a promising position after Andy Marinos and Michael Owen cleverly combined from a Dragons drop-out to take play into Ulster’s 22.

But after several phases of play, Humphreys got in the way of a Dragons’ grubber kick and hacked on twice to run virtually the length of the field for a spectacular score. He then added the two points and Ulster were in control at 12-0 after 17 minutes.

Twelve minutes later and Ulster struck again after a Humphreys loop put Howe clean through a demoralised Dragons defence. Humphreys added the simple conversion to make it 19-0 to the home side.

Ulster were not finished and four minutes before the break Humphreys kicked his first penalty which gave Ulster a 22-0 lead at the turnaround, with no further score added in the second half.

Ulster skipper Andy Ward was also pleased with his side’s display and echoed Solomons’ disappointment at Ulster’s failure to escape the pool stages.

“We wanted to win first and foremost and we showed we are good enough to compete in Europe.

“Unfortunately our campaign has come to an early end again. But we’ll learn from it and it’s important we have the confidence to compete in Europe,” Ward said.

No-one from Gwent Dragons made themselves available for comment.