It was the visitors however who took the early initiative with fulback Nick Macleod slotting three early penalties before the Ulster, playing their first game in three weeks, finally found their stride. Mark McCall’s side battled their way back into the game courtesy of a penalty try. Ulster scrum-half Isaac Boss charged down an attempted clearance and hacked the ball on but he was taken out by Nick Robinson in the 22 and the referee had no hesitation in awarding the penalty score and sin-binning the Blues fly-half outside half before Humphreys added the easy conversion.
A penalty from Humphreys on the half hour gave his side the lead for the first time in the game but they only held it briefly as another effort from Macleod gave them a narrow advantage once more. The Blues suffered their second yellow card of the half before the break when John Yapp was sent to the sin-bin.
Humphreys failed with his first penalty attempt of the second period but regained the lead for the hosts a couple of minutes into the second half with another penalty but a try from Jamie Robinson saw the lead change hands yet again. Marc Stcherbina produced an incisive burst through the Ulster defence before offloading to Robinson who notched the five-pointer, Macleod could not convert.
Humphreys reduced the Blues’ lead to a single point with his third penalty and when Cardiff prop John Yapp was sin-binned soon after Humphreys made the most of the resulting penalty to give Ulster the lead once more. Ulster were not to be denied at home and a try off following a five metre scrum put them on course for victory.
Boss made a run to the openside before cleverly moving the ball back to No.8 Roger Wilson who crahsed over for the try. Humphreys converted and almost immediately added his final penalty to cap another superb individual display.
