Match Centre: Harlequins 21-57 Ulster

Harlequins 21-57 Ulster, Twickenham Stoop
Scorecard

Ulster ran an eight-try riot as they over powered Harlequins with a 57-21 win in the round-of-16 European Challenge Cup clash at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.

The Irish side will now face Northampton Saints in the quarter-finals at Franklin's Gardens on 10th April.

Ulster got the initial breakthrough after Robert Baloucoune, who provided a perfect break for centre Stuart McCloskey to touchdown. John Cooney kicked the conversion and followed with a penalty goal in the 14th minute as they raced to a 10-point lead.

The visitors further extended their lead after Ulster set up a driving maul following a high tackle at the end of which Rob Herring crossed over in the 22nd minute and four minutes later Sean Reidy followed the suit. Cooney kicked the extras on both the occasions as they increased their lead to 24 points.

Ulster were down to 14-men temporarily with Jordi Murphy yellow carded and Harlequins immediately capitalised on the numerical advantage with skipper Tom Lawday crossing the whitewash but a poor clearance kick from the hosts allowed Ulster to break in again with this time Michael Lowry going past a couple of defenders to score as the teams headed into the break with a 7-29 scoreline.

After the opening 15 minutes went without a point, the deadlock came to an end through Herring's second that came after a powerful driving maul. The end of the third quarter saw Billy Burns intercepting a pass to crossover to take Ulster's lead to 7-43.

The tries kept flowing and Harlequins had their chance with Jack Kenningham diving over but his effort was cancelled out with a touchdown from Alby Mathewson in the 67th minute. Ulster soon completed their eighth try with Reidy capitalising an error from the home side as they increased their tally to 57 points before Jordan Els burrowed down at the death for a consolation try for the Quins.

Team line up:

Harlequins: Green; Northmore, Lang, Lasike, Earle; Herron, Steele; Garcia Botta, Elia, Collier, Tizard, Hammond, White, Kenningham, Lawday

Reserves: Head, Els, Kerrod, Cavubati, Jurevicius, Stafford, Tapuai, R Chisholm.

Ulster: Lowry; Baloucoune, Hume, McCloskey, Stockdale; Burns, Cooney; O'Sullivan, Herring, Moore, O'Connor, Treadwell, Reidy, Murphy, Timoney.

Reserves: Andrew, Warwick, O'Toole, Izuchukwu, Rea, Mathewson, Madigan, McIlroy.