Cardiff extinguished the interests of the 1999 European champions in this season's competition in an utterly one-sided contest and advanced to the quarter-finals for the fifth time at the fifth attempt at Cardiff Arms Park last night.
With a not unexpected flurry of early penalties to the home side from the start, they set the tone with quick taps in establishing a fast and furious tempo which Ulster struggled to live with.
Neil Jenkins equalled Lee Jarvis' club record in this competition with 27 points and was deemed the man of the match. Outside him, the Cardiff backs held great depth and came onto the ball at speed.
They weren't shy about roughing up Ulster a bit either. In his first game since September, Cardiff captain Dai Young and his fellow prop Spencer John followed through after the whistle at the first scrum to provoke a quick bout of fisticuffs and the harmless concession of a penalty inside the Ulster 22.
Ulster could do little else but try to make their tackles, Allen Clarke, Gary Longwell and Andy Ward leading the way. It didn't help Brad Free's service was unusually wild, and David Humphreys was getting ball and man almost simultaneously.
Cardiff's opening try came after nine minutes when Owain Williams took a quick tap and bulldozed up the middle to halfway where he was hauled down by Ward, and from the quick recycle Jenkins dummied inside Tony McWhirter. Nick Walne took the outhalf's flat pass and his speculative pass was gathered for the touchdown by centre Jamie Robinson.
A couple of penalties by Humphreys were real fingers in the dyke stuff, and were only sandwiched with another couple of Cardiff tries. Pieter Mullen looped around James Topping and handed off Johnny Bell for Robinson to take the pass to score in the corner.
A harsh penalty for offside after Topping had done well to gather Robinson's clever chip ahead was duly landed by Jenkins to make it 15-6.
Cardiff's next try came from a breathtaking passage of support play off the restart from deep inside their own half. Jenkins, Muller and Robinson's deft hands released Gareth Thomas and Rob Howley acrobatically regathered his inadvertent hack on to keep the move alive. Walne and hooker Jonathan Humphreys put Craig Quinnell over in the corner.
To their credit Ulster stemmed the flow with a swift response. Cardiff switched off as Mark Blair made initial inroads, supported by Allen Clarke, and from the recycle Topping took Humphreys' skip pass to accelerate through a thicket of defenders untouched.
Ulster could only be relieved to trail 23-11 at the break. However, despite a brief post-interval flurry and a few more through the second period, thereafter Jenkins dipped his bread frequently.
It was all one-way traffic in the second half. Jenkins landed two quick penalties and after withstanding a token bout of pressure from Ulster, Cardiff came back downfield seemingly as they pleased, with Jenkins going over for a try which he converted.
Humphreys, who'd never stopped creating things with his classy distribution, was a beacon in the gloom for Ulster and conjured up a consolation try in injury time for Topping.
Scoring Sequence - 9 mins: Robinson try, Jenkins con 7-0; 12 mins: Humphreys pen 7-3; 17 mins: Robinson try 12-3; 20 mins: Humphreys pen 12-6; 28 mins: Jenkins pen 15-6; 30 mins: Quinnell try 20-6; 32 mins: J Topping try 20-11; 38 mins: Jenkins pen 23-11; 42 mins: Jenkins pen 26-11; 48 mins: Jenkins pen 29-11; 53 mins: Jenkins pen 32-11; 58 mins: Jenkins drop goal 35-11; 72 mins: Jenkins try and con 42-11; 82 mins: J Topping try 42-16.
CARDIFF: R Williams; N Walne, J Robinson, P Muller, G Thomas; N Jenkins, R Howley; S John, J Humphreys, D Young (capt), C Quinnell, O Williams, E Lewis, M Williams. Replacements - K Fourie for John (67 mins), C Morgan for Muller (77 mins), M Rayer for R Williams (79 mins), D Geraghty for O Williams (80 mins).
ULSTER: S McDowell; J Topping, R Constable, J Bell, T Howe; D Humphreys (capt), B Free; J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, C Boyd, M Blair, G Longwell, R Nelson, T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements - S Best for Boyd (51 mins), P Shields for Clarke (63 mins), P Johns for Blair (54 mins), D Topping for Nelson (67 mins), S Bell for Free (73 mins).
Referee: Steve Lander (England).
