Spirited Scarlets Fail at Ravenhill

By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

Following the weather conditions improving and the threat of a waterlogged pitch diminished, the Scarlets travelled to Ravenhill for the second time for this rearranged fixture against Ulster in the Rabo ProDirect.

Despite the Six Nations, the Scarlets fielded a strong XV, with only 2 changes from the team that beat Munster in Parc Y Scarlets in the last game.

The home team almost scored the first try with just a couple of minutes on the clock as a confident Ulster ran the ball from inside their own 22. Desperate cover tackling from the Scarlets half backs just saved the day.

As play moved into the Ulster 22, the Scarlets began stringing together passes in a move initiated by Centre Olly Barkley with seemingly very little defence from Ulster, however the home team was given the opportnity to clear their lines following the Scarlets being penalised at the line out.

An awkward bounce cost the Scarlets dearly as Aled Thomas failing to gather the ball saw Paddy Jackson gratefully receive the ball and cross for the opening try of the game. Danger man Ruan Piennar added the conversion to give his team an early lead of 7 points to 0.

Jackson made an early bid for man of the match seconds later with his change of direction being instrumental in releasing Tommy Bowe for the home team’s second try. Again Piennar added the conversion and within a matter of minutes the Scarlets found themselves losing 14 points to 0.

The confidence in the home team following the scoring of the two tries in quick succession was evident as the visitors found themselves stuck in their own 22. However, a break from Olly Barkley and good Scarlets hands saw Josh Turnbull release Kristian Phillips in the corner; however he was just unable to get his pass away for what would have been a certain try.

The Scarlets finally opened their scoring towards the end of the half following a high tackle on Jacobie Adriaanse which saw him leave the pitch to be replaced by Samson Lee who had been released by the Welsh Camp. Olly Barkley made no mistake with his penalty attempt to narrow the gap slightly to 14 points to 3.

However, Tommy Bowe repaid Jackson for his earlier try scoring pass with an inside pass that saw the Outside Half cross under the posts for his second try of the evening. Piennar’s conversion saw the home team’s lead increase to 21 points to 3.

Gareth Davies demonstrated great vision with his kick behind the defence along with a huge injection of pace to ground the ball and score the opening try for the visitors. Barkley’s conversion saw them bounce back immediately to narrow the gap to 21 points to 10 at half time despite a strong first half performance from the home team.

The Scarlets made a much stronger start to the second half, with Jordan Williams demonstrating his magic, however, as had happened on more than one occasion, Welsh referee Hennessey did the Scarlets no favours as the stop-start manner of the game continued.

With the 50 minute mark looming, the Scarlets put together a good display of passing rugby with Josh Turnbull being influential. Working through the phases saw them deep in the Ulster 22 with Jordan Williams inches from the try line. However, a forward pass relieved the pressure for the home team.

In almost end to end rugby, Piennar was offered his first kickable penalty of the game. Unusually, his kick was wide of the posts, to the relief of the travelling Welsh men.

He was given an second opportunity a matter of minutes later in order to extend the home team advantage to two converted, but once again his kicked sailed wide of the sticks.

Olly Barkley further bridged the gap to just 8 points with a well struck penalty to bring the score line to 21 points to 13 with still 20 minutes remaining on the clock, keeping his team, a much improved team in the second half, in touch.

Unfortunately, it was the Scarlets defence that was tested during the latter part of the second half as Ulster not only looked for their bonus point try, but their first points of the half.

The home team did come close with just a couple of minutes remaining, but a forward pass during the move was a temporary reprieve for the visitors.

A moment of madness from Gareth Davies offered Ulster a chance to cross the whitewash as the referee moved play 10 metres closer to the Scarlets try line. Ulster believed they had scored the fourth try despite it obviously being grounded short of the line. Bizarrely, the try was awarded much to the frustration of the Scarlets who had demonstrated an immense improvement in their play in the second half.

Piennar continued with his poor second half kicking display as he was unable to add to the conversion, however with four tries scored to one, Ulster were victorious by 26 points to 13.