Ulster ... 16 Llanelli ... 9Ulster became the third Irish province to qualify for the Celtic League quarter-finals with a spirited victory over Welsh champions Llanelli at Ravenhill last night.
Edinburgh's victory over Neath at the Meadowbank Stadium had already gifted Alan Solomons' side a last-eight place, but Ulster's David Humphreys-inspired victory secured third place in Pool A.
Humphreys place-kicking may have been below standard, only landing two penalties from eight attempts and one drop-goal out of three, but it was his control and out-of-hand kicking in atrocious conditions that impressed.
A big performance by the Ulster pack first tamed and then took apart the fiery Llanelli eight.
Playing into rapidly deteriorating conditions in the first half, Ulster's aim was to go in at half-time as close to their opponents as possible as Llanelli outhalf Stephen Jones exploited his side's strong wind advantage. The home side therefore were able to take great comfort from their 7-6 half-time lead.
Ulster's slender advantage was founded on a perfect start when after 42 seconds scrumhalf Neil Doak intercepted a pass from Stephen Jones to Scott Quinnell and raced home from the half-way line. Humphreys added the conversion. But after Ulster had failed to capitalise on an attacking scrum, Stephen Jones knocked over his first penalty in the seventh minute.
Ulster should have made more of a scintillating break by flanker Neil McMillan, who side-stepped his way through the Llanelli defence to off-load to Shane Stewart.
And while the home side continued to dominate possession their problem was that any turn-overs were punished territorially by the boot of Jones, who cut the deficit further with an 18th-minute penalty from the half-way line.
Ulster went close to extending their lead when James Topping almost gathered a penalty attempt by Humphreys that held up over the line in the wind. But as the conditions worsened, Ulster were content to playing a driving game, with Humphreys kicking for territory and Llanelli seemed to run out of ideas.
While the conditions eased somewhat at the restart, Ulster began the second period with great vigour. Humphreys was wide with two long-range penalty attempts and a short-range drop-goal attempt after a clever kick and chase by the Irish international.
The visitors, having absorbed a period of relentless pressure, took the lead with Jones' third penalty.Some heated exchanges raised the tempo and when Llanelli prop Iestyn Thomas was sent to the sin bin for dangerous play, Humphreys restored the home side's lead with his first penalty.
Ulster proceeded exploited their numerical advantage. Humphreys extended their lead with a drop-goal and his second penalty and continued to torture the visitors with out-of-hand punting to send Llanelli out of the tournament
SCORING SEQUENCE: 1 min: N Doak try, Humphreys con, 7-0; 7 mins: S Jones pen, 7-3; 18 mins: Jones pen, 7-6; 53 mins: Jones pen 7-9; 58 mins: Humphreys pen 10-9; 63 mins: Humphreys drop-goal 13-9; 66 mins: Humphreys pen; 16-9.
ULSTER: B Cunningham; J Topping, S Stewart, A Larkin, S Young; D Humphreys, N Doak; J Fitzpatrick, M Sexton, R Kempson, G Longwell, M Blair, W Brosnihan, N McMillan, T McWhirter. Replacements: S Coulter for Topping 40 mins; R Constable for Larkin 48 mins; N Best for McWhirter 75 mins.
LLANELLI: G Evans; M Jones, M Watkins, S Finau, T Selley; S Jones, G Easterby; I Thomas, R McBryde, J Davis, L Gross, C Wyatt, D Hodges, D Jones, S Quinnell. Replacements: V Cooper for Gross 65 mins; M Madden for Davis 74 mins; P John for Hodges.
Referee: J Hogg (SRU).
