ULSTER CLAIMED A comfortable 48-0 bonus point victory over Treviso in this evening’s Pool 5 encounter at Ravenhill.
Tries from Paddy Jackson, Luke Marshall and John Afoa gave the hosts a 22-0 half-time lead as the visitors produced a disappointingly frail display for outgoing coach Franco Smith.
Jackson would add 13 points from the boot on top of tries from Dan Tuohy, Sean Doyle, Andrew Trimble and a second from Marshall in closing half hour to put Ulster on top of the pool with 13 points, ahead of Montpellier and Leicester who play tomorrow.
Ulster welcomed back captain Johann Muller to the starting side and the South African second row was a fitting man to lead the pre-match minute of silence in respect of Nelson Mandela.
The respect ended from Ulster with the first whistle and their two opening adventures into Treviso territory ended in near misses down the right flank.
There wasn’t much waiting around for the opening score however, once Marshall and Robbie Diack had laid a central platform, a fine move back out on the right wing making space for Jackson to cross.
The out-half would miss the opening kick from a difficult angle, but would go on to make six from eight in front of 12, 977 supporters in Belfast.
Things got even better for Mark Anscombe’s side after 16 minutes, Marshall this time getting on the end of a Jared Payne pass in midfield after an athletic turnover of a loose ball by Dan Tuohy.
Treviso were being run ragged, unable to gain a foothold in attack and porous in defence. By the 30th minute, Afoa had side-stepped and bull-dozed his way to the third try of the night.
The hosts were in full flow, Andrew Trimble was slicing up the middle and Sean Doyle was greasing the wheels of the breakdown. They went after the bonus point fourth try before half time, but had to settle for a penalty to leave the scoreline at 22-0 at the break.
The opening minutes of the second half didn’t quite go as planned. Pienaar embarked on an early attack down the left, but that set a long period of Italian pressure in motion.
Pressure, but no points. The hosts managed to hold firm in defence, but not without the loss of Marshall to the sin-bin after 50 minutes.
That card seemed to jolt the white shirts into life and they were soon celebrating a try against the run of play as Tuohy broke and fed Darren Cave before the centre returned the favour to send the lock under the posts.
From that point on, the contest was over and it became just a matter of how many for the hosts.
The answer was seven as Tuohy again made the inroads to allow Doyle put the finishing touch on an accomplished display at openside.
By the time Cave unleashed Trimble to the corner it was a rout and the 75th minute finally brought the last cut in the Italian defence as Jackson broke the line again and delivered a perfect pass to his right where Marshall was only too willing to ground try number seven to send Treviso back across the alps to lick their wounds before the sides meet again next Saturday.
