Late try leaves Ulster with much catching up to do

It will clearly take the wisdom of Solomons to get Ulster back on the Celtic League track following their shattering home defeat by Llanelli at Ravenhill last night.

Coming in the wake of their scare against Glasgow at the weekend when they were forced to hang on for a hollow draw, this latest blow to Ulster morale will present coach Alan Solomons with tactical and selection difficulties as he surveys even more demanding tasks that lie ahead, beginning with the weekend confrontation against Leinster.

Ulster were forced to rely far too heavily on the accurate place kicking of David Humphreys last night and although his seven well struck penalties represented a hugely commendable contribution, they merely served to highlight a lack of real invention and creativity by the Ulster backs overall.

Ulster, in fact, led by 14-13 at the interval, Jan Cunningham having swooped for a try just before the break to compliment a hat-trick of Humphreys first-half penalties with Marcus Thomas having gone in for a Llanelli try which Jones converted, supplementing this with two penalties.

Ulster threatened to cut loose in the second half but found Llanelli's cover defence solid and resolute and it was left to Humphreys to keep his side ticking over with two further penalties.

Even though Geraint Evans managed to steal away for a second Llanelli try which Jones converted, Ulster still looked relatively comfortable as Humphreys prodded them into the 26-20 advantage with two further penalties to bring his tally to seven in all.

But it was Llanelli who finished strongly, probing for openings and eventually finding a way through when Welsh international Wayne Proctor surged through in injury time to snap up what proved to be the match winning try.

Jones went through the motions of adding the points, cementing a fine personal display but while Llanelli will take considerable heart from this result, Ulster are forced to go back to the drawing board.

Having made eight changes for last night's game, coach Solomons will now fall back on his big guns for future assignments.

ULSTER: P Wallace; S Coulter, R Constable, J Bell, T Howe; D Humphreys, K Campbell; S Best, P Shields, C Boyd, M Blair, P Johns, (capt), T McWhirter, R Nelson, N McMillan. Replacements: R Weir, J Fitzpatrick, J Davidson, M Allen, N Doak, A Larkin, N Malone.

LLANELLI: Cardey, Proctor, N. Boobyer, Finau, G. Evans, S. Jones, Peel, Booth, M. Thomas, J. Davies, Morgan, Wyatt, D. Jones, I. Boobyer, Hodges. Replacements: Madden, Smith, C. Gillies, Cooper, G. Easterby, G. Bowen, Selley.

Referee: B Dickeson (Scotland)