Pro14: Glasgow Warriors 30-7 Ulster: Bonus-point win keeps hosts top

Adam Hastings scored one try and kicked 10 points for Glasgow

Glasgow Warriors clinched a bonus-point win over Ulster at Scotstoun to move closer to a Pro14 home semi-final spot.

Rob Herring crossed to put Ulster ahead but the hosts responded swiftly through Fraser Brown, Adam Hastings and Tommy Seymour.

Prop Zander Fagerson crashed through after the break to secure the four-try bonus, Hastings kicking 10 points in total.

The win keeps Glasgow top of Conference A, three points ahead of Munster.

Defeat for Ulster is a blow to their play-off aspirations, they stay second in Conference B but could slip behind Benetton if the Italian side beat Leinster on Saturday.

They face fourth-place Edinburgh next week in a crucial play-off battle, with just two regular season games remaining.

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Glasgow recover from slow start

After their chastening experience at Saracens last weekend, this was a terrific night for Glasgow and a wounding one for Ulster, who had their own European disappointment to contend with.

In the early minutes, Ulster did not look like a team that had any hangover from their outstanding but ultimately fruitless performance against Leinster in the Champions Cup, Herring rumbling over early from a 5m lineout with John Cooney converting in its wake.

Ulster had played those opening moments with pace and accuracy and carried all sorts of threat - and then all of those things evaporated from their game when Glasgow, with Jonny Gray making his 100th appearance, got hold of things and refused to let go.

The home team had a strong wind at their back in the opening half and they set about making the most of it in a way that Ulster could not later on.

Stuart Hogg's huge gale-assisted kick out of defence was the catalyst for their first try, Ulster conceding the penalty as they scrambled - a penalty that Glasgow kicked to touch and then mauled over the Ulster line. Brown got the touch down and Hastings made it 7-7 with the conversion.

Fraser Brown's converted try got Glasgow level, and they never looked back

The visitors' lineout started to collapse around them - they lost a bucket of ball out of touch - and even when they looked like getting up a head of steam the speed and venom of Glasgow's defence turned them over time and again.

Glasgow hit the front when the hard-running Kyle Steyn put Ulster on the back foot. A quick recycle and Hastings wriggled his way over. The fly-half saw his conversion come slapping back off an upright.

If that was unlucky then what he did next was unerring. From a mile out, and with that breeze still blowing behind him, Hastings banged over a penalty to make it 15-7.

Before the break there was a double whammy that more or less settled the contest. Ulster had an attacking lineout five metres from the Glasgow line but could not execute.

A few moments later, Glasgow were down the other end and scored. Where Ulster were stressed in attack in the face of home pressure, Glasgow were dynamic and clinical, Hogg putting Seymour over in the right-hand corner.

Once again, Hastings' conversion came off an upright, not that it bothered Glasgow a whole lot. With three tries to their name against a team that are going toe-to-toe with Edinburgh for a play-off place in Conference B, they then went and got a fourth only four minutes into the new half.

Glasgow turned on the power, recycled rapidly, inched forward and waited for their moment, which came for Fagerson, who drove over for the bonus-point try. Hastings' extras made it a 20-point game at 27-7.

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Dan McFarland's team needed something - and quickly. They thought they had it when Jacob Stockdale's deft offload put Luke Marshall over, but Seymour recovered wonderfully and managed to tackle the ball out of Marshall's hands just as the centre was about to dot down. Not quite Stockdale versus Leinster, but a sore one all the same.

Hastings' boot eased Glasgow into 30-7 lead on the half-hour. Then, another Ulster moment that had them covering their eyes in deep frustration. Rob Lyttle looked to have run in a try from distance, a fine, opportunistic score that would have at least taken some of the dirty look off the scoreboard.

When the TMO got involved, the replay showed that Lyttle, under pressure from Seymour, had touched down a millimetre short of the line and then knocked on. Painful, again, for Ulster.

Glasgow saw it through with ease after that. They had too much edge, too much control, too much finishing power. It was exactly the kind of reaction Dave Rennie had been looking for after their abrupt exit from Europe. They remain top of their conference, a home semi-final still very much in their grasp.

Line-ups

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg, T Seymour, K Steyn, S Johnson, N Matawalu; A Hastings, A Price; O Kebble, F Brown, Z Fagerson, R Harley, J Gray, A Ashe, C Fusaro (capt), M Fagerson.

Replacements: G Stewart, J Bhatti, S Halanukonuka, S Cummings, T Tameilau, G Horne, P Horne, R Nairn.

Ulster: M Lowry, R Lyttle, L Marshall, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, J Cooney; E O'Sullivan, R Herring, M Moore, A O'Connor (capt), K Treadwell, S Reidy, J Murphy, M Coetzee.

Replacements: J Andrew, A Warwick, T O'Toole, I Nagle, M Rea, D Shanahan, D Cave, A Kernohan.