Gregor Townsend was left disappointed with Glasgow's performance at Ravenhill

Ulster became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup after a 23-6 triumph over Glasgow Warriors.

Nick Williams' try and the boot of Ruan Pienaar took Mark Anscombe's team 10-0 ahead at the interval.

Although Duncan Weir briefly reduced the arrears with two penalties, further touchdowns from Jared Payne and Darren Cave secured the victory for Ulster.

Looking to qualify from Pool Four, the hosts got off to the perfect start when Pienaar slotted an early penalty.
Glasgow have struggled in Europe this season having lost all four games so far. With nothing to play for, they found it difficult to match the intensity of the Irish province.

And after Ulster had threatened once again with an attack that was eventually foiled by the Warriors' Henry Pyrgos, they found their way over through Williams.

The home side's scrum-half added the conversion to open up a 10-point advantage after 20 minutes.

To their credit, Gregor Townsend's men battled back and had two chances to reduce the deficit towards the end of the half, but Weir was off-target both times.

However, the stand-off finally got the Scottish outfit on the board just after the break with a penalty.

That spurred Glasgow on and a second from the boot of Weir after Ian Henderson had been sin-binned was just reward for a period of pressure.

But Pienaar responded with one of his own to restore the seven-point gap before Payne and Cave's late touchdowns sealed their passage to the last eight.

It's Glasgow's fifth straight defeat in this season's competition but head coach Gregor Townsend promises they will do everything they can to sign off with pride when they face Northampton Saints at Scotstoun in Round 6.

"We strive to win every game whether it's in the league or Europe and that game will be no different," said Gregor.

"It will be our last game in the Heineken Cup this season and we want to finish with an 80-minute performance.

"Our performances have been excellent at times in this campaign, starting with the opening half-an-hour against Northampton back in October. But we haven't managed to put in a full 80-minute performance.

"The players deserve a win for their efforts but it will take an excellent performance to beat a Northampton side that has hit some form and looking to qualify for the quarter-finals."

Few teams leave Ravenhill with the spoils but Gregor added: "We were very good in the third-quarter of the game and I thought the win was there for us.

"At the end of the first half we got to grips with the conditions and the tactics you needed to deploy. There was more hunger in our kick-chase and we were cleaning out in the ruck far better.

"We had the momentum at 6-10. Ulster were down to 14 men, we had the edge in a number of areas and were forcing them into mistakes and penalties.

"The game was there for us to stamp our authority on but we didn't. There were always going to be errors in those conditions but a couple of mistakes let Ulster edge ahead and then they finished far stronger, which was disappointing."