Ulster's new dawn obscured in the rain

RUGBY MAGNIER'S LEAGUE Ulster 9 Llanelli 16:SUMMER CAME and went - or then again, did it? - but on a night when you wouldn't have put the cat out this was not the start to a new dawn which Matt Williams, the Ulster players and a big Ravenhill crowd would have wanted.

Ultimately, for all Ulster's spirit and effort, Llanelli were the polished and clinical all-round team, mastering the conditions with a more secure performance in most facets of the game, notably lineout, restarts and defence, to kickstart their own new era under Nigel Davies with their first league win in Belfast in six attempts.

Ulster paid for too many missed tackles and a lack of precision in their use of the ball when playing with the elements in the first period. But, in the circumstances, to hang tough and pilfer a bonus point after turning around one point adrift was a manful effort if relatively little consolation.

BJ Botha looked a prime piece of Springbok, Clinton Schifcofske was security personified at the back and Robbie Diach was tireless, but, for Timoci Nagusa, this was a long way from Fiji.

There wasn't too much evidence of the ELVs having a significant affect, save for the free bursts over the gain line from scrums which now resemble lineouts once the ball is moved.

With both sides opting to put in nine men, or three pods, this affected the quality of the lineout ball, though the new law legalising bringing down the maul ensured it was negated pretty much at source on the occasions it was attempted.

The more telling change was the greater number of penalties arising at the tackle area when players were penalised for going off their feet to protect the ball as Scottish referee Peter Allan applied the IRB's new guidelines.

Ulster kicked off with the wind and slanting rain behind them, and within the first quarter there were two telling examples of the advantage this gave. First, a towering touchline kick by Clinton Schifcofske, and then a searing box kick by Isaac Boss, yielded 70-plus metre gains.

However, more pertinent was its affect on the scoreboard, and in this regard Ulster didn't help themselves, in particular with some missed first-up tackles which enabled Llanelli to work their way upfield.

Ulster's other problems were their failure to secure Stephen Jones' restarts, or make any inroads into Llanelli's more clinical lineout and at the breakdown, where Llanelli's superior ball presentation ensured a greater degree of continuity to their game.

And when Ulster's fast-up defence was deemed offside, Stephen Jones thumped a 30-metre penalty into the teeth of the wind and through the posts.

Schifcofske, brought in, in part, to remedy the damaging, 46 per cent place-kicking ratio of last season, couldn't follow up his own punt with a difficult angled penalty.

He did keep Ulster on the front foot with a couple of excellent takes in the air, only for Ulster to commit one turnover too many when Robbie Diack lost the ball in contact.

A close exchange of passes between Simon Easterby and Lou Reed saw the former gallop up the middle and link with centre Gavin Evans for flanker Gavin Thomas to release Darren Daniel. He looked well collared by Andrew Trimble, but the Ulster winger was left reproaching himself after slipping off his tackle on the outside. What's more Jones turned the difficult conversion into a 10-0 lead.

Schifcofske opened his account soon after, and added another after a double hit by Darren Cave and Ryan Caldwell (who added a bit more ballast when he replaced the injured Carlo Del Fava) earned a penalty against Gavin Evans for not releasing.

Schifcofske missed a couple more from 45 metres and, just, from 55 metres, before making it 9-10, after Ulster went through a few phases for the first time in the match.

But Llanelli ran down the clock with some close-in recycling to skip off to the sanctuary of the dressingrooms with a greater spring in their step.

The scale of the task facing Ulster inclined sharply soon after the resumption when Kieron Dawson was penalised for not rolling away after Stephen Jones took up lineout ball, and the latter duly landed the 30-metre penalty.

Relief came by way of Jones hitting the upright soon after when McCullough was also pinged for not rolling away.

Ulster began playing some of their best rugby, with some big scrums, and plenty of grunt and grind by the forwards, either through pick-and-go, close-in target runners or Rob Dewey on the cutback - albeit all in their half. Thus, when Trimble was penalised for - surprise, surprise - diving in after Dewey had taken the ball up strongly over the gain line, all their good work merely resulted in Jones banging over the long-range penalty on the hour.

To keep the scoreboard motionless for the final quarter in ever-worsening conditions was actually a commendable effort in the circumstances, withstanding one siege on their line when Dewey and Darren Cave held up Stephen Jones under the posts and working their way tirelessly through phases up to half-way, if rarely beyond.

Niall O'Connor made an impact off the bench, also freeing up a previously hesitant Paddy Wallace to probe and put some more width on their game.

O'Connor even made a rare, clean break through Llanelli's well-drilled blue line, Wallace following up with a stunning pick-up and break, and the game ended with Schifcofske knocking on inside the Llanelli 22.

Even getting that far upfield was an achievement and, significantly, the vast majority of the 7,368 had remained to witness it.

SCORING SEQUENCE:6 mins: S Jones pen 0-3; 21: Daniel try, S Jones con 0-10; 24: Schifcofske pen 3-10; 27: Schifcofske pen 6-10; 37: Schifcofske pen 9-10; (half-time 9-10); 43: S Jones pen 9-13; 60: S Jones pen 9-16.

ULSTER:C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, D Cave, R Dewey, A Trimble; P Wallace, l Boss; J Fitzpatrick; R Best (capt), B Botha, C Del Fava, E O'Donoghue, M McCullough, K Dawson, R Diack. Replacements: R Caldwell for Del Fava (28 min), T Court for Botha, D Pollock for Dawson (both 66 min), N O'Connor for Cave (77 min). Not used: N Brady, C Willis, B Cunningham.

LLANELLI:M Stoddard; D Daniel, R Higgitt, G Evans, M Jones; S Jones, S Martens; I Thomas, M Rees, K Meeuws, L Reed, S Maling, S Easterby (capt), G Thomas, D Lyons. Replacements: D Manu for Meeuws, V Cooper for Maling, D Jones for G Thomas (all 66 min), M Roberts for Martens (72 min), K Owens for Rees, Meeuws for I Thomas (both 78 min). Not used: C Thomas, N Brew.

Referee:Peter Allan (SRU).