Ulster brought their recent Celtic League form to the Heineken Cup to register their first win in Pool Four against the Scarlets tonight. But, after three games, it looks highly unlikely to be enough for them to get close to qualifying from the group, especially after Ulster failed to register a bonus-point win.
First-half tries from Darren Cave and Simon Danielli, with a David Pollock effort in the 63rd minute, gave Ulster revenge for losing at Ravenhill to the Scarlets on the opening day of their League campaign, and they can repeat the dose next week for what would be a rare away win in Europe when the sides meet again in west Wales.
After virtually 25 minutes of stalemate, which saw the sides locked at 3-3 following penalties from Ian Humphreys and Stephen Jones, Ulster, who had looked the more dynamic side, finally broke free with a sweetly-worked score from a scrum in the Scarlets' 22. The ball was moved to Humphreys, whose chip over the visitors' rush defence was picked off by centre Cave for the touchdown.
Referee Andrew Small still went upstairs to confirm Cave's effort and, unsurprisingly, the try was awarded and Humphreys added the extras to give Ulster a 10-3 lead. From the restart, Jones narrowed the lead after Ulster were penalised at a ruck but, three minutes after the half-hour mark, Ulster won turnover ball and Danielli set off on a weaving run from nearly halfway that saw the Scarlets' defence dissolve in front of the Scotland international as he made the left corner.
Humphreys missed the conversion but Ulster led by nine points. Flanker Pollock was then held up just short of the line by Mark Jones after Bryn Cunningham collected his own chip to again get in behind the Scarlets' defence and Ulster spent the remainder of the half camped in the visitors' territory.
Humphreys had a horrible penalty miss when he sliced the ball from a kickable position but made amends right at the death to give Ulster a thoroughly-deserved 18-6 half-time lead. The Scarlets cut the deficit through Stephen Jones' third penalty after Martin Roberts bought his side a penalty after being taken out by Cillian Willis.
The visitors should have then had a try only to see Stephen Jones and Simon Easterby manufacture a forward pass with an overlap outside them. Stephen Jones then added to Scarlets' misery by missing a 56th-minute penalty while, two minutes later, Humphreys landed one from nearly 50 metres to give Matt Williams' side a secure-looking 21-9 lead.
This was then added to after replacement Issac Boss put Pollock clear from turnover ball and the flanker sprinted over in the left corner. Humphreys' conversion came off the upright but Ulster now looked to have an impregnable lead.
All that remained was a raft of substitutions, the yellow carding of Ulster replacement Mark McCrea - who was binned two minutes after arriving after he took out Morgan Stoddart in mid-air - and Ceiron Thomas's 78th-minute score from a forward pass, which Stephen Jones converted.
Ulster assistant coach Steve Williams felt their victory should have been more emphatic.
"The boys implemented what we asked them to do and I thought we controlled things really well for most of the first half," he said. "I thought we should have scored a few more tries but we were still pleased with the result and it was good that two of our tries came from turnovers.
"It showed the hunger of our players, and now we've got to go over there and have a crack at them. We should have confidence and shouldn't have any fear about taking them on."
Llanelli coach Nigel Davies accepted his charges had fallen well short of producing a satisfactory performance and their European campaign was now over. "We got what we deserved," he said. "In the first half we were very poor, we made mistakes and they turned us over. We just couldn't deal with it in the first half.
"In the second half we made some gains but we were always chasing the game. The big problem was that we gave them the game in the opening half. We're now out (of Europe) but we've got to front up. We need a couple of wins now to get some confidence back. All credit to Ulster, they deserved it."
Ulster: Cunningham, Danielli, Cave, Steinmetz, Trimble, Humphreys, Willis, J. Fitzpatrick, Best, Botha, O'Donoghue, Caldwell, Ferris, Pollock, Diack.
Replacements: McCrea for Steinmetz (69), O'Connor for Humphreys (72), Boss for Willis (52), Court for J. Fitzpatrick (52), McCullough for Ferris (69), Dawson for Pollock (67). Not Used: Brady.
Sin Bin: McCrea (72).
Scarlets: Stoddart, C. Thomas, King, Davies, M. Jones, S. Jones, Roberts, I. Thomas, Rees, Manu, Cooper, Day, D. Jones, Easterby, Lyons.
Replacements: Williams for Stoddart (75), Cattle for Roberts (71), John for I. Thomas (67), Owen for Rees (57), Edwards for D. Jones (71). Not Used: N. Thomas, Priestlend.
Man of the Match: R Diack (Ulster Rugby)
Att: 10,000
Ref: Andrew Small (RFU).
