Ulster dead and buried

Ulster 11 Llanelli 35: Ulster's slim hopes of progressing in the Heineken Cup were ruthlessly snuffed out by Llanelli at at a rain-sodden Ravenhill this afternoon.

It was Ulster's first home defeat in over a year and they only have themselves to blame as they turned around with just a four-point advantage after playing with the conditions in the first half.

The home side also failed to score during a 10-minute period when Llanelli were reduced to 14 men.

Irish fly-half Paddy Wallace gave Ulster a perfect start as he slotted over a penalty after two minutes.

Tommy Bowe got the game's first try on 14 minutes. Scrum-half Kieran Campbell put a kick over the top of the defence and Bowe out sprinted Mark Jones to gather the ball and touchdown but Wallace was unable to convert.

Llanelli had number eight Alix Popham sin-binned for a high tackle on Wallace, but Ulster could not take advantage from the resulting penalty. Popham returned from the sin-bin and got his side back in the game with a try five minutes from half-time.

The visitors had a lineout, Adam Jones caught and drove, but was cut short on the line. After a series of drives the ball was recycled, Popham fed Simon Easterby looped round and finished the move off with Jones converting.

Paul Steinmetz gave Ulster a four-point lead at the break with a simple penalty on the stroke of half time.

Ulster made it the better start in the second half, but failed to turn pressure into points and Llanelli edged in front with a try from former All Black centre Regan King.

Ulster tried to run the ball out of defence but dropped it. the Scarlets recovered and moved the ball wide leaving King to go over unchallenged with Jones converting.

Morgan Stoddart added a third try after a simple three quarters move, which took advantage of some weak Ulster tackling.

Welsh scrum-half Dwayne Peel sealed a bonus point with a try on 78 minutes and centre Gavin Evans put the gloss on the victory with an injury time try.