Discarded Ireland winger Tyrone Howe scored two tries and outside-half Adam Larkin ended the night scoring 17 points, as Ulster registered their 12th win of the campaign with considerable ease over a side who offered almost nothing to trouble their hosts.

Ulster simply out-thought and out-muscled their opponents up front, where wing forward Neil Best had another outstanding game, and the backline found plenty of space to harvest.

Larkin opened the scoring in the third minute after Edinburgh were penalised after taking the ball into contact.

Six minutes later Ulster struck again. Some lacklustre Edinburgh tackling allowed Best to break into the open spaces, draw Hugo Southwell and feed Tyrone Howe who galloped in from 30 metres out.

Larkin added the two points and Ulster were comfortably 10-0 in front.

Ulster continued to dominate and came close to crossing the Edinburgh line on two occasions before Larkin landed his second penalty after 23 minutes to make it 13-0.

That lead became 18-0 three minutes later when Howe touched down in the left corner for his second score – which Larkin failed to convert.

Then, just on half time, Edinburgh suffered a further blow when skipper Graeme Burns was sent to the bin after killing the ball at a ruck and the visitors just about held on to keep the score at 18-0 at the turnaround.

It did not take Ulster long to make an impact after the restart and Matt Sexton barged over under the posts, giving Larkin an easy conversion to make it 25-0 to the home side after 47 minutes.

The bonus point duly came just after the hour when an Andy Ward break saw replacement Paddy Wallace gallop over under the posts. Larkin missed the simple conversion but Ulster were out of sight at 30-0.

On the stroke of full-time, Adam Larkin went over – his successful score was the last act of the game.