Ulster will go into next weekend’s Guinness Pro 14 semi-final play-off with Connacht buoyed by a 14-13 victory over Leinster at Kingspan Stadium.
With bigger matches in coming weeks and both sides unable to better their position in the table, the coaches took the opportunity to give some fringe players a game - but the contest never hit the heights.
After a scrappy opening Leinster had the first chance to put points on the board after the pack won a penalty from a scrum but Ross Byrne's long range effort dropped short.
Chance were at a premium in the first quarter and when both sides did create any the good work was undone by a handling error.
Ulster's first opportunity to score came on 24 minutes. Johnny McPhillips turned the Leinster defence with a well weighted kick, full-back Michael Lowry caught the ball in the visitors' 22, and the forwards worked it through a couple of phases to edge closer to the line - but Joe Tomane won a turnover at the ruck, allowing Byrne to clear to touch.
Leinster finally broke the deadlock on 29 minutes. Fergus McFadden, who had earlier escaped a sanction for an altercation with Sean Reidy, got the ball on his wing and made a jinking run across the pitch into the Ulster 22. He fed Byrne and the outside-half fired the ball to the wing for full-back Jimmy O'Brien to go over in the corner for an unconverted try.
Ulster responded immediately. Lowry started the move with a probing counter attack and offloaded to scrum-half Dave Shanahan,who was propelled over the line with the help of a couple of forwards after initially seeing his progress halted. McPhillips added the conversion.
Leinster regained the lead as Byrne slotted over a penalty following an Ulster infringement at the line-out.
The visitors went into the break with a 13-7 lead following a try from the final play of the first half, when McFadden slid in for an unconverted score following good work by Byrne and Noel Reid.
Michael Lowry made an electric break in the 46th minute and up until replacement Marcus Rea’s 62nd minute try, it was all Ulster who were camped inside the opposition 22.
Leinster lost lock Oisín Dowling to the sinbin for repeat offending, and it appeared they might hold out until Rea carried hard to the line, with Max Deegan and Nick McCarthy unable to halt the barrelling back rower to mark his senior debut in style.
Ulster: Michael Lowry, David Busby, Darren Cave, Peter Nelson, Angus Kernohan, Johnny McPhillips, Dave Shanahan, Andy Warwick, John Andrew, Ross Kane, Ian Nagle, Alan O’Connor, Matty Rea, Clive Ross, Sean Reidy
Replacements: Adam McBurney, Tommy O’Hagan, Tom O’Toole, Nick Timoney, Marcus Rea, Jonny Stewart, Jack Owens, Rob Lyttle
Leinster: Jimmy O’Brien, Fergus McFadden, Joe Tomane, Noel Reid, Dave Kearney, Ross Byrne, Nick McCarthy, Jack McGrath, Bryan Byrne, Michael Bent, Josh Murphy, Oisín Dowling, Max Deegan, Will Connors, Caelan Doris.
Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Peter Dooley, Vakh Abdaladze, Ryan Baird, Scott Penny, Paddy Patterson, Ciaran Frawley, Barry Daly.
