A Leinster side without their Ireland internationals claimed a narrow 27-20 victory over Ulster in Belfast while Glasgow Warriors had to fight hard for their 17-15 win over Scarlets.

Ulster scored two tries on the night, both through Ben Carson, with Nathan Doak kicking two conversions and two penalties in a losing cause at home.

Despite only winning by seven points, Leinster doubled Ulster’s try count as Luke McGrath, Jordan Larmour, Jimmy O’Brien and James Culhane crossed. Ross Byrne kicked two conversions and a penalty on the night.

The hosts were the team to fly out of the blocks with Carson going over for a converted try after four minutes in a sensational start for Ulster. Typically, Leinster did not take long to respond with a converted score of their own through McGrath just before the 10-minute mark.

Two minutes later Ulster managed to edge ahead again with a Doak penalty but as was the trend of this clash Leinster responded with a Byrne penalty in the 16th minute. The clash tightened up as both sides grew into the game and this was finally broken by Doak’s last penalty of the game in the 29th minute.

Ulster would take the lead into half-time but it would be Leinster who would score first after the break as Larmour showed brilliant feet to skip through the defence and score a converted try on 49 minutes.

The hosts scored a try in response six minutes later through Carson again, with Doak’s conversion the last points Ulster would score on the night. Leinster only took three minutes to cancel the try out through O’Brien although Byrne missed the kick on this occasion.

That would not be a concern as Culhane went over with just eight minutes left to secure an important win and maintain Leinster’s unbeaten record.

Defending champions Glasgow Warriors were on the ropes against the Scarlets and went scoreless for just about all of the first half as the visitors piled on the pressure thanks to an early try from Josh Macleod and a penalty from Ioan Lloyd. It was Johnny Matthews’ try converted by Duncan Weir that kept the hosts in the game.

Scarlets would start strong in the second half through an Ioan Nicholas try with Lloyd making no mistake from the tee again. Weir dug deep for the hosts and responded with a 52nd minute converted try putting Glasgow within striking distance.

Weir would star yet again with a 68th minute penalty which ultimately sealed the game even though Scarlets had a chance to win it with a penalty of their own late on but Lloyd was not on target on this occasion.