Youthful Edinburgh Rugby beaten on first outing of pre-season as prop goes off injured

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt named a callow squad for the trip across the Irish Sea, with nine academy players and five first-year pros summoned to face Ulster at the renamed Affidea Stadium.

British and Irish Lions representatives Pierre Schoeman, Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham were either rested or injured, while Scotland trio Magnus Bradbury, Sam Skinner and Hamish Watson were all among the replacements.

Ulster took the lead after six minutes when lock Cormac Izuchukwu drove over from close range, with Jack Murphy adding the conversion. And eight minutes later, the hosts had a second when centre Jude Postlethwaite broke through. On this occasion, Murphy could not add the extras.

Winger Zac Ward added a third try after a neat dummy on 37 minutes, with Edinburgh forced into a change when prop Rhys Litterick was forced off due to injury.

Ulster continued from where they left off after the break on 48 minutes for an unconverted try from hooker James McCormick, who broke off the back of a driving maul. But Edinburgh regrouped and crossed the whitewash for the first time a minute later via a converted try from replacement scrum-half Conor McAlpine to make the score 24-7.

Winger Malelili Satala-Navlivou added another for the visitors as they ate into the deficit, but faint hopes of a comeback were extinguished when Ulster replacement centre Jonny Scott scored and Jake Flannery added the conversion on 65 minutes.

Loose-head prop Mikey Jones scored a late converted try for Edinburgh as the final score read 31-19 to Ulster.