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Ulster's Rory Best with Connacht's Mike McCarthy ©INPHO/Presseye/William Cherry
Magners League

Magners League Mop Up: Friday's action

Victories for Ulster, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Friday night’s Magners League action all mopped up.

ULSTER BOOSTED THEIR chances of a place in the Magners League semi-final play-offs by beating Connacht last night.

Elsewhere, the Llanelli Scarlets secured their place in next year’s Heineken Cup after beating Glasgow and seeing Edinburgh continue their winning run with victory over the Newport-Gwent Dragons.

Here’s the mop up…

Ulster 27 – 16 Connacht

Ulster were always in control here but it was still a hard-fought win at Ravenhill. Rory Best and Adam D’Arcy ran home first half tries, both converted by Ian Humphreys who kicked two second half penalties and converted a late try from Darren Cave.

For Connacht, Sean Cronin touched down with Ian Keatley converting, kicking two penalties and a drop goal but the visitors never looked likely to stop Ulster’s march to second place in the league.

The only regret for coach Brian McLaughlin was being unable to secure a bonus point, reports BBC.

Glasgow Warriors 29-37 Llanelli Scarlets

The Scarlets secured their place in next season’s European Cup with a bonus point win over Glasgow where a 15 minute period in the second half proved decisive when Ben Morgan, Lou Reed and Tavis Knoyle crossed the line.

Morgan Stoddart scored two first-half tries for the visitors but DTH van der Merwe’s try and two Ruaridh Jackson penalties kept the hosts within touching distance at the break.

Van der Merwe added another early in the second half before Scarlets ran away with it, crossing the line three times. All of which made Tom Ryder’s late try a mere consolation.

Edinburgh 27-15 Newport-Gwent Dragons

The Scarlets European qualification was secured thanks to the Dragons’ defeat in the Scottish capital where Edinburgh looked in total command over a lacklustre visiting side.

The result extends Edinburgh’s winning run to three matches. The hosts ran home tries from Greig Laidlaw, Tim Visser and Chris Paterson, who also weighed in with a 12 points from his expert kicking.

Dragons responded with tries from Aled Brew and Adam Hughes and five points from the boot of Jason Tovey but they could not match Edinburgh who moved to within a point of the visitors in the lower reaches of the table.