Pool Five/Ulster 11 Llanelli 35:Disappointed, depressed and at the end in disarray, Ulster closed the book on this year's Heineken Cup with a firm slap. That Paddy Wallace departed injured to join David Humphreys and Isaac Boss will have been of little comfort to Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan and his compadre, Niall O'Donovan, who made the trek up to Ravenhill and then back to Donnybrook to witness two European matches of vastly contrasting fortunes and style. However, the Ulster management team indicated later they were optimistic about Wallace, who became a father to a baby boy, Jack, on Saturday.
That, though, was about the height of the good news from Ravenhill as Ulster shipped one of their worst defeats at the fortress for many years against a side that tailored their game perfectly to the rain and wind-lashed Belfast ground.
What Ulster can take from the five tries they conceded will be no more than some character- building from the school of hard knocks. Learn and move on was their lugubrious refrain as they left the stadium to focus now on retaining their Magners Celtic League title. Cold comfort.
"Our lack of taking opportunities," was Allen Clarke's synopsis of the failure. Ulster coach Mark McCall's right-hand man was not that open about the flat performance but his disappointment was clear. "We'd three opportunities in the first half and we didn't take them. That was quite a telling factor in the game. We did try to press home the advantage in the first half but we didn't succeed."
Roger Wilson, the Ulster number eight and probably the most regular face on the side, echoed Clarke's views. He said:
"Yeah, we probably didn't do enough in the first half. Things were looking good at the start of the second half but again we failed to hold on to the ball."
Ulster were too often the authors of their own misfortune. When they pressed hard they were invariably thwarted by errors. A knock on, a bad lineout, the wrong option, an easy turn over. The more they laboured, the further they looked from winning this match, never mind winning it with a bonus point, which is what they needed to push home their ambitions for a place in the knockout stages.
"The criticism we will get is justified after a performance like that," said McCall.
"Overall this has been an amazingly disappointing campaign and now we have to sit down and take stock. The last few tries came from us playing horrible rugby in the teeth of a gale. Nobody wants to go through a game like that. Now it's about how we react."
The trip for Irish coach, O'Sullivan, would not have been that rewarding. While Tommy Bowe, back from some time out with injury, looked fresh and a potent threat with ball in hand, the rest of the international crew looked lethargic and lacking in ambition. That included the normally explosive Andrew Trimble, again playing in the centre.
It was a most unusual Ulster performance. For a team so proud in the way they compete and contest every game, this was a rout and in the end the heads even went down, which for their exacting levels of expectation was unforgivable.
When you hand a fine and exciting team like Llanelli two or three soft tries, you can really expect no more than that they humiliate you and in the end that is what happened.
While Ulster held an 11-7 lead at half-time after a wind-assisted first half, it was far short of what they needed given the gale blowing straight down between the stands. Then after an enterprising but ultimately unfruitful phase after the break when Ulster were recycling and pounding the Llanelli line in the corner before inevitably knocking on, the match turned full circle.
Firstly the home side spilled the ball going backwards and were turned over. Dwayne Peel then made space for Regan King to go over. Soon after fullback Morgan Stoddart ran through the defence and over Mark Bartholomeusz to make it 11-21; Ulster were firmly on the back foot. Injury-time brought further ignominy with Peel going over and Gavin Thomas running through a fractured Ulster defence for the fifth try.
For Llanelli who now have a home quarter-final, it was one of their best performances in the competition and, similar to Leinster, their ability to keep the ball alive and in hand in such terrible conditions, marks them out as a team to watch.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 2 mins: P Wallace pen 3-0; 15: T Bowe try 8-0; 36: A Popham try, M Jones con 8-7; 40: P Steinmetz pen 11-7. Half time. 57: R King try, Jones con 11-14; 63: M Stod1dart try, Jones con 11-21; 80: D Peel try, Jones con 11-28; 83: G Thomas try, Jones con 11-35.
ULSTER: M Bartholomeusz; T Bowe, A Trimble, P Steinmetz, P McKenzie; P Wallace, K Campbell; B Young, R Best, S Best (capt), J Harrison, M McCullough, N Best, K Dawson, R Wilson. Replacements: A Larkin for Wallace (39 mins); J Fitzpatrick for Young (44 mins); K Maggs for Steinmetz (60 mins); T Barker for Harrison (60 mins); R Cauldwell for McCullough (76 mins).
LLANELLI: M Stoddart; D James, R King, G Evans, M Jones; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, M Rees, D Manu, A Jones, S McLeod, S Easterby (capt), G Thomas, A Popham. Replacements: M Watkins for M Jones (39 mins); K Owens for J Davies (67 mins); D Jones for Popham (74 mins); V Cooper for A Jones (76 mins).
Referee: J Jutge
