Ulster set to end Scarlets' title hopes

MAGNERS LEAGUE: Ulster v Scarlets:VICTORY FOR Ulster in Belfast tonight would not only endorse their credentials for the play-off run-in but possibly signal the last rites for a Scarlets side with similar ambitions. The Welsh franchise is five points behind tonight's hosts and need to win each of their last four matches, while hoping for sympathetic results elsewhere.

Ruan Pienaar’s dramatic late interventions with the boot have rescued Ulster in recent weeks but it is a trend that is unlikely to persist. The South African has shown remarkable composure to post game-winning scores as the match clock has turned to red.

It will be interesting to note whether the kicking duties revert to Ian Humphreys, happily recovered from a hamstring injury and playing his first game in a month.

The home side also welcome back Munster-bound Springbok tighthead prop BJ Botha, out with an elbow problem sustained in a Heineken Cup match against Biarritz in January.

Andrew Trimble returns to the wing having missed the province’s last two games. Adam D’Arcy returns at fullback, Simon Danielli moves to the left wing, Pienaar to scrumhalf, with the gifted young Ireland Under-20 international and the team’s top try scorer in the competition with seven, Conor Gilroy, dropping to the bench as does Conor Gaston.

Up front Rory Best captains the side, having come on for a 16-minute cameo the last day, while Willie Faloon is promoted to the team, with Chris Henry dropping to the replacements. The Scarlets will be without a brace of internationals in Scotland’s Seán Lamont (hamstring) and teen sensation George North (concussion).

Their former Wallaby number eight, David Lyons, is included on the bench following surgery but his absence has been offset by the excellent form of the promising Ben Morgan, who forms an athletic backrow alongside Jonathan Edwards and Josh Turnbull.

Centre Jonathan Davies – the team’s top try scorer with eight – and wing Morgan Stoddart excelled during the Six Nations Championship, while New Zealander Regan King has lost none of his creative elegance.

Scarlets and Welsh captain Matthew Rees admitted: “It’s in our hands; we have to win our four remaining games. We’re in a dog-fight now with the other teams around us.

“We got the victory against Treviso last weekend; it wasn’t the best of games but we have put things right this week. The conditions out there are going to be tricky, it will be an arm wrestle early on and we have to take the game to them. It all starts up front and delivering a set-piece for our backline to play off and we know we’ve got some great players in our backline.”

The Welsh side will still be smarting from the last time these sides met in February when Pienaar produced a late tour de force in pilfering an 18-16 victory with a long range penalty.

Ulster’s run of five successive victories in this tournament slightly camouflages a need for them to elevate the level of their performance to cater for tonight’s remit. Defeat will all but end the Scarlets’ interests in the play-offs.

Ulster will want to produce the type of quality that will not only nudge them to a win tonight but give them a platform, confidence wise, as they travel to Milton Keynes for next weekend’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against the Northampton Saints.

ULSTER:A D'Arcy; A Trimble, N Spence, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best, BJ Botha; J Muller (capt), D Tuohy; R Diack, W Faloon, P Wannenburg. Replacements:A Kyriacou, P McAllister, D Fitzpatrick, T Barker, C Henry, P Marshall, I Whitten, C Gilroy.

SCARLETS:R Priestland; G Maule, R King, J Davies, M Stoddart; S Jones, T Knoyle; I Thomas, M Rees (capt), R Thomas; L Reed, R McCusker; J Turnbull, J Edwards, B Morgan. Replacements:E Phillips, R Jones, P Edwards, A Shingler, D Lyons, M Roberts, D Evans, S Williams.

Referee:Graham Knox (Scotland).

Leading points scorers:Ulster: Ruan Pienaar 102. Scarlets: Rhys Priestland 142.

Leading try scorers:Ulster: Conor Gilroy 7. Scarlets: Jonathan Davies 8.

Verdict:Ulster to win.

Next Season

The 2011/12 Magners League season will start on the first weekend of September and will be played over six of the eight weeks set aside for the World Cup in New Zealand. There will be a two-week break then before fixtures resume on October 29th.

There will be two more weekends of action before the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup pool matches begin in November. A further four rounds of matches during the seven-week Six Nations Championship. The Magners League semi-finals and final will be played on the weekends of May 12th and 26th respectively.