The bumper crowd at Ravenhill witnessed the awesome power of the Ulster forwards stifle the scru,m, scupper the visiting lineout and dominate in the loose, with backrower Neil Best having a fine game.

This provided the platform for the back division to shine and former Ireland winger Tyrone Howe scored two tries and outside-half Adam Larkin ended the night scoring 17 points.

Larkin opened the scoring in the third minute after Edinburgh were penalised after taking the ball into contact.

Six minutes later Ulster struck again. Weak Edinburgh tackling gave Best the chance break into the open space, draw Hugo Southwell and feed Tyrone Howe who galloped in from 30 metres out.

Larkin added the two points and Ulster were 10-0 in front.
Ulster came close to crossing the Edinburgh line on two occasions before Larkin landed his second penalty after 23 minutes to make it 13-0.

That lead became 18-0 three minutes later when Howe touched down in the left corner for his second score – which Larkin failed to convert.

Then, just on half time, Edinburgh suffered a further blow
when skipper Graeme Burns was sent to the bin after killing the ball at a ruck.

The visitors just about held on to keep the score at 18-0 at the turnaround.

It did not take Ulster long to make an impact after the restart and Matt Sexton barged over under the posts, giving Larkin an easy conversion to make it 25-0 to the home side after 47 minutes.

The bonus point duly came just after the hour when an Andy Ward break saw replacement Paddy Wallace gallop over under the posts. Larkin missed the simple conversion but Ulster were out of sight at 30-0.

On the stroke of full-time, Adam Larkin went over – his successful score was the last act of the game.