On the face of it it was all boxes ticked for Ulster with a bonus point win against Scarlets and a barnstorming return from Stephen Ferris.
However a fairly hapless second half display and the injuries to Ruan Pienaar (shoulder) and Callum Black (ankle) took much of the gloss of a scintillating first half performance.
The not so subtle undercurrent in the build up to this match was all about the return of Stephen Ferris but it was another returnee that stole the show in the first half with Paddy Jackson producing a play book of such class that Joe Schmidt must have had second, third and fourth thoughts on his decision to discarded the youngster for the crunch match against France.
Both teams opted to run the ball in the opening exchanges but with defences dominating it took a stroke of luck for Jackson to open the scoring. A speculative chip through by the youngster looked to be well covered before a wayward bounce wrong footed the defence and landed in Jacksons hands as he scampered over . . .
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