Celtic League / Ulster 30 Llanelli 13: On the day the IRFU gave qualified backing to the British government's plan to build a new multi-sports stadium at the former Maze prison site, Mark McCall's Ulster side kept their place among the leading pack at the top of the Celtic League table with an ultimately comfortable victory over Llanelli at Ravenhill last night.

With Ulster forced to dig deep into their reserves given the unavailability of their five players in the Ireland 22 and injuries to Kevin Maggs and Scott Young, the northern province found their hero in former All Black Paul Steinmetz.

Steinmetz, handed the kicking duties in the absence of David Humphreys, was accurate with six penalties in all and converted Andrew Maxwell's fourth try in two games as Llanelli faded badly after a promising start.

Indeed Ulster had looked in deep trouble when two massive penalties by fullback Barry Davies and a converted try by former Lions centre Dafydd James had given the visitors a 13-3 lead going into first half injury time.

Ulster's frustration was aggravated by the fact that at the time they had a two-man advantage following yellow cards shown to Llanelli's Inoke Afeaki and Martyn Madden.

But the home side managed to reduce the deficit to three points thanks to a try from nothing created by a sizzling break by Isaac Boss and finished by Maxwell.

And after the break, the home side pulled away with five more penalties and after Llanelli lost flanker Dafydd Jones to a red card for stamping, Tyrone Howe completed the victory with a try on his 99th appearance for his province deep into injury time.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 19 mins: B Davies pen, 0-3; 21 mins: P Steinmetz pen, 3-3; 35 mins: D James try, G Bowen con, 3-10; 39 mins: Davies pen, 3-13; 40 mins: A Maxwell try, Steinmetz con, 10-13; 46 mins: Steinmetz pen, 13-13; 51 mins: Steinmetz pen, 16-13; 58 mins: Steinmetz pen, 19-13; 71 mins: Steinmetz pen, 22-13; 80 mins: Steinmetz pen, 25-13. 82 mins: T Howe try, 30-13.

ULSTER: B Cunningham; J Topping, J Bell, P Steinmetz, A Maxwell (T Howe 80); A Larkin, I Boss (K Campbell 80); J Fitzpatrick, N Brady (P Shields 79), B Young, J Harrison, M McCullough (R Frost 78), S Ferris (N Best 72), N McMillan, R Wilson.

LLANELLI: B Davies; T Selley, D James, R King, G Evans; G Bowen (M Hercus 65), C Stuart-Smith (L Davies 65); C Dunlea, M Rees, M Madden, I Afeaki (V Cooper 65), H Louw, D Jones, G Thomas, A Popham.