Man of the match Luke Marshall delivered a star performance as Ulster romped home against a struggling Treviso side 32 – 13 in the Rabbio Direct Pro 12 league at Ravenhill on Friday night.
The 22-year-old blonde haired center
was instrumental throughout the 80 minutes as he scored the first of five tries,
seeing Ulster gain a try bonus point for the first time this season. Mark
Ansombe’s side now lies 5th in the Pro 12-Table.
Building from last week’s performance against
Connacht, a clinical Ulster took to the pitch on Friday night and after just
twenty minutes Ulster set the tone as the ever-impressive New Zealander Jared
Payne made a scintillating break and Luke Marshall was on hand catching a
simple pass and scoring the try. A second try came from Ulster’s right wing
Michael Allen, again set up by Payne giving Ulster clear breathing space with a
15 – 3 half time lead.
The well-drilled Italian outfit fought
tirelessly and got their just rewards with a converted try from Robert Barberi.
However any chance of a Treviso fight back was quickly diminished following a
second try from Allen and a further two tries from returning Irish and Lions
internationals, Tommy Bowe and Rory Best.
Allen scoring three tries in two
games is causing a selection headache for Mark Anscombe as he awaits the return
of Andrew Trimble in the second week of October. Allen said:
"The more experience that I get the better I become and the easier it is to play at the highest level. It is a long list at the back three and I’m just going to try to do everything I can to win a spot against Leicester."
Ulster’s coach Mark Anscombe was thrilled with
the bonus point performance.
"We have been on the verge of a few tries in recent weeks, but it just did not happen. But tonight it did happen for us and it was a good reward for the hard work put in by the boys. We talked about playing smart and the game management was the main focus for us tonight. When we took responsibility for our management things happened and we got our rewards for that."
Ulster will face the unbeaten Ospreys next weekend in their first–four fixtures. The Welsh region are spearheaded by the astute
Dan Biggar who passed the 1,000 points mark in the Rabbio Direct PRO 12, when
the Ospreys hammered Connacht 43-26 at the Galway Sport’s ground on Saturday. A
win next weekend for Ulster would establish a mouth-watering encounter against
10–time English Champions Leicester Tigers at Ravenhill in the first round of
the Heineken Cup on Friday 11th October.
Video of Luke Marshall playing for Ireland here and below:
Video of Luke Marshall playing for Ireland here and below:
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