Ulster saw another side to the European Cup last night in Stradey Park. The worm turned and the province found Llanelli doing to them what they had done to the three times cup champions Toulouse last week.

"It was a completely different match," said McCall. "I think we were hit with an onslaught in the first 20 minutes and to be honest, I thought we were fortunate to be just five points down. Then things turned for us slowly but we were unable to capitalise on the little chances, the breaks we had around the field."

But when David Humphreys kicked Ulster to within three points in the second half, there was the outside chance that Ulster could break back into contention.

"It was game on at that stage," said McCall. "Their second score was a disappointment and I think we let them in far too cheaply. We did have opportunities in the last 10 minutes of the match but we couldn't take them and that was disappointing."

Those missed opportunities that come around infrequently in tight matches such as last night's may very well cause Ulster a few sleepless nights. "At times when we went through the phases we had chances," said assistant coach Allen Clarke. "It just didn't work out for us and now we will have to sit down and watch the video and see where it went wrong. I think we got the upper hand at the end of the game."

Not surprisingly, Llanelli Scarlets coach Phil Davies was beaming, especially after Ulster hung in and began to press them at the end of the match. In what he described as "an absorbing game" Davies paid tribute to Ulster's dogged determination to extract what they could from the match but pointed to the statistics which showed that the home side dominated both possession and territory.

"We thought we'd a reasonable amount of control for the whole period," said Davies. "Ulster are always well controlled and well drilled and they came back well in what I thought was an absorbing match.

"I was very pleased with the way our forwards fronted up to them but we had 60 of possession in the first half and you cannot be disappointed with that."

But with such control, Llanelli went into the break with only one try on the board and two gilt-edged chances missed as much from stubborn Ulster defence as Llanelli errors. "We weren't unhappy with the way we were playing. With 66 per cent territory and 60 per cent possession, well I think that says a lot. We knew Ulster would come and come and come and they did that."

Ulster's mood was summed up by man of the match Neil Best. "I'm not happy, no," said the flanker.

"I'm just putting a brave face on it. I was disappointed with the first 10 minutes when they came out all guns blazing but, yeah, we could have won it."