Ulster 24 Cardiff Blues 33 Saturday 3 April 2010, 7.30pm kick off, Ravenhill Ceri Sweeney kicked off proceedings but it was Ulster who got the best start when Paddy Wallace gathered and up and under well and took the ball up field. Ulster then moved left where Isaac Boss came to within yards of the try line. From the scrum the Ulstermen were awarded a penalty that O'Connor converted.
The Blues struck back soon after. As Ulster looked to spread the ball Laulala read the move well and intercepted O'Connor's pass to sprint in from 60 yards. Sweeney converted.
The opening 10 minutes had more tempo than the whole of last Friday's encounter in Cardiff and Halfpenny soon extended the lead with a long-range effort. The Blues were looking dangerous with Laulala showing quick hands and putting Czekaj into space. However, they failed to capitalize, but Halfpenny extended the lead further with another long-range effort after Ulster had collapsed the scrum. O'Connor slotted another penalty to narrow the deficit to 6-13 with 30 minutes gone but the Blues struck back again. They spread the ball left through Filise and Molitika, who passed on to Laulala. The Centre drew his man and passed to Rush, who did superbly to throw a dummy to open a gap and sprint through from forty yards to score under the posts. Sweeney converted. O'Connor and Halfpenny exchanged penalties to bring the score on the half to 9-23.
Half Time Ulster 9 Cardiff Blues 23
Ulster seemed to have lifted the tempo following the break with Boss proving a handful and they were soon on the scoreboard with another O'Connor penalty. They got their first try of the evening following good work by Trimble. The ball was then spread right where Ferris was lurking and used his power to crash over. Ulster were now always looking to attack but the next score came when Halfpenny struck another penalty for the Blues. At times Ulster were playing dangerously and were lucky not to concede a try when Martyn Williams read a quick line out and nearly forced Best back over his own try line. Ceri Sweeney did superbly to gather a difficult ball and put Jamie Roberts into a gap. The big centre did well to come within yards of the try line and when the ball was recycled Dafydd Hewitt saw a gap and powered his way over. Halfpenny converted.
Ulster struck back with a late consolation try for Chris Henry that Ian Humphreys converted but it was too little too late.
Cardiff Blues
Try Laulala x 1 Rush x 1 Hewitt x 1
Pen Halfpenny x 4
Con Sweeney x 2 Halfpenny x 1 D/G
Ulster
Try Ferris x 1 Henry x 1
Pen O'Connor x 4 Con
Humphreys x 1 D/G
Cardiff Blues 15 Chris Czekaj 14 Leigh Halfpenny 13 Casey Laulala 65off 12 Jamie Roberts 11 Tom James 10 Ceri Sweeney 9 Richie Rees 8 Xavier Rush 7 Sam Warburton 60off 6 Maama Molitika 5 Paul Tito 55off 4 Deiniol Jones 3 Taufa'au Filise 75off 2 T Rhys Thomas 40off 1 Gethin Jenkins 16 Scott Andrews 75on 17 Gareth Williams 40on 18 Andries Pretorius 55on 19 Martyn Williams 60on 20 Darren Allinson 21 Dai Flanagan 22 Dafydd Hewitt 65on
Ulster (15-9) Jamie Smith, Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Simon Danielli, Niall O'Connor Isaac Boss (1-8) Declan Fitzpatrick, Rory Best, BJ Botha, Ed O'Donoghue, Ryan Caldwell, Stephen Ferris, David Pollock, Chris Henry Ulster Replacements (16-22) Andi Kyriacou, Bryan Young, Dan Tuohy, Robbie Diack, Paul Marshall, Ian Whitten, Timoci Nagusa