Adam Larkin was the key player for the Irish province as he slotted 15 points with the boot, while second half tries from Andrew Maxwell, Campbell Feather and Matt McCullough put the game out of reach of the Blues, whose 14 points all came from Lee Thomas.

Larkin opened the scores from a penalty when Robin Sowden-Taylor was penalised at a ruck but the Blues bounced back well to slot their own penalty via the boot of Thomas. More penalties from Cardiff offered Larkin the chance to restore his side’s advantage and he happily obliged. Three penalties put Ulster 12-3 up after 20 minutes.

Thomas pulled three points back for the Blues but normal service was shortly resumed as an Ulster attacking maul, in Cardiff’s 22, ended with Deiniol Jones being sin-binned by referee Iain Ramage for pulling the maul to the ground. Larkin duly converted his fifth penalty to put Ulster 15-6 ahead.

Larkin looked to stretch the lead with another penalty just before the break but his first miss of the night saw the ball fall short of the target.

Cardiff and Thomas rallied after the break with their third penalty. But their hard work was once again undone, this time by an opportunistic try from Ulster’s Andrew Maxwell. Paul Steinmetz launched a probing kick for the corner, which was missed by Blues full-back Matthew Nuthall and Maxwell kicked on to score an unconverted try and put the home side 20-9 in front.

Four minutes later, Larkin was wide with his seventh penalty attempt but Feather, Ulster’s skipper for the night, stretched his side’s lead further by making the corner after 71 minutes. Larkin missed the difficult conversion but Ulster led 25-9.

Thomas’ 75th minute try was mere consolation for the visitors, especially as McCullough bagged his side’s third try three minutes later.