PRO14: Ulster 52-25 Dragons
Ulster put the Dragons to the sword at the Kingspan on Friday night, scoring 8 tries in a thumping 52-25 victory.
They opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, recovering after some poor handling saw the ball spilt backwards. Piutau was able to collect before offloading to Clive Ross in space on the right wing.
Quick hands saw the ball moved infield in the 22 through captain Chris Henry who released Stuart McCloskey to score.
With just 12th minutes played Ulster's Peter Nelson sold a clever dummy to break the Dragons' line and dive over for the 2nd, before adding the extras with a conversion.
Ulster's relentless pressure told in the 20th as a surge from the forwards saw the Welsh haul down an maul as it headed for the line. The ref had no choice but to award a penalty try, and Lloyd Fairbrother was yellow carded.
By the 26th minute, the bonus point was wrapped up for Ulster as young number 8 Nick Timoney powered over from close range.
3 minutes later, temporary replacement Wiehahn Herbst capped his cameo from the bench by crossing from close range for Ulster's 5th try.
The Welsh weren't discouraged, despite the uneven scoreboard, and pulled a try back through Rhys Buckley towards the end of the first half to make it 33-13 to the home side.
Fewer than 5 minutes into the 2nd half, Ulster scored their 6th when Thretton Palamo failed to deal with Tommy Bowe's kick forward, and Jacob Stockdale produced an opportunistic piece of finishing for his 3rd try in as many games this season.
Timoney then collected the ball outside the 22, smashed his way through 3 Dragons' tackles, and raced clear to dive under the posts for his 2nd try of the evening. Nelson's conversion meant Ulster had a 45-13 lead just 10 minutes into the 2nd half.
Dane Blacker slipped over for the Dragons in the 57th minute to reduce the deficit, but Ulster replied 5 minutes later as sub scrum-half Dave Shanahan showed some quick thinking to tap a penalty and dart for the line.
The Dragons added a late consolation effort as Talbot-Davies ran the length of the field on the counter, but Ulster were much too far ahead for it to matter, and picked up their 4th win in 4 games.