Nothing is ever certain when there are matches left to play, but Ulster's defence of their European crown effectively ended last night at Ravenhill Road. Theatre, fireworks, rock music and a brave but flat performance ultimately sealed the champions' downfall as the province once again struggled to find the form that led them to last season's historic win.
Still welded to the bottom of Pool C, Ulster's lap of honour has, from the beginning, always had an jaded look. And so it continued. The bald statistics tell us that much. Not one try scored and just 24 points from three matches, all coming from the boot of full-back Simon Mason.
In fairness, Ulster came upon a Llanelli side dominant in the scrums and in the loose and as it was not a night for running the ball they struggled on the sodden pitch from the start to contain their visitors.
After an hour or so of holding out, Ulster finally capitulated as Chris Wyatt and Tongan international Salesi Finau ran in a try each for a deserved 23-point margin.
The first half saw a patchy Ulster display as Llanelli played the game almost entirely in the home side's half of the pitch. Ulster had missed two of their own lineouts, one of which resulted in a sweeping Welsh move and Hywel Jenkins sliding over in the left corner only to be denied by the referee for an infringement.
Eric Miller was the pick of the Ulster pack, showing flashes of pace and handling in the loose, but it was largely a defensive 40 minutes during which Tony McWhirter was forced out for Irish captain Dion O'Cuinneagain to make an entrance.
Welsh number eight Scott Quinnell made yardage at will and while Llanelli played the match breathing down on the Ulster line the visitors would have been disappointed at the break with their six-point lead (12-6). In that phase Simon Mason kicked two penalties and Stephen Jones four, the Llanelli out-half building towards a fine personal performance of seven kicks from seven for 19 of his side's points.
While the second half provided the opportunity for Ulster to raise their game, all they could offer was a brief flourish of defiance on their line as Llanelli opened at pace. Five scrums on the Ulster line were finally repelled following a big tackle from flanker Andy Ward on the breaking Craig Gilles but the spirits were only fleetingly lifted.
Wyatt's pivotal try came from a trundling move and desperate lunge from the middle of the pitch for 19-6 before Finau's run from centre split the tiring defence six minutes later for a 26-6 lead.
There the contest ended. Ulster lost heart and there was little damage limitation they could do on an increasingly difficult surface. David Humphreys made a couple of fiery breaks but was inevitably gobbled up well short of the Welsh danger zones while a golden opportunity for Jonathan Bell to put Mason through on the outside perished with Bell's wild throw in the dying minutes.
But that was Ulster's story. Disappointing, never getting the breaks, rarely making the moves.
ULSTER: S Mason; J Topping, J Cunningham, J Bell, S Bromley; D Humphreys (capt), M Edwards; J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, J Veitayaki, P Johns, M Blair, E Miller, T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements: D O'Cuinneagain for T McWhirter (24 mins), R Weir for A Clarke (29 mins), S Bell for Edwards (54 mins), G Longwell for Johns (67 mins), T Howe for Topping (77 mins), N Malone for Mason (78 mins).
LLANELLI: M Cardy; W Proctor, N Boobyer, S Finau, D James; S Jones, R Moon; P Booth, R McBryde, J Davies, C Wyatt, C Gillies, S Easterby, S Quinnell, H Jenkins. Replacements: V Cooper for C Gilles (60 mins), R Vaster for McBryde (78 mins), P Horgan for Moon (80 mins).
Referee: S Lander (England).
