Heartbreak As Ulster Snatch Last Gasp Victory

After what felt like a long summer break, the rugby season is finally back with the Scarlets travelling to Belfast for the opening round fixture against Ulster Rugby in Kingpan.
Despite fourteen players on the injury list, the strength in depth following Wayne Pivac’s shrewd recruitment was evident. Despite the casualties, the visitors’ starting XV was a strong one, with new recruits, Clayton Blommetjies, Kieron Fonotia, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Blade Thomson all making their League debuts.
With kick-off looming, the Scarlets were dealt another huge injury blow as a heavily-strapped Jonathan Davies was ruled out during the warm-up to be replaced by Steff Hughes who wasn’t included in the original match-day twenty-three but had fortunately joined the team as a travelling reserve.
Despite the disruption, the game started with a high pitch tempo with the Scarlets solid in defence. New signing, Thomson’s break offered Fonotia an early chance at scoring his debut try, however he was tackled just short of the whitewash.
However, the Scarlets secured a penalty and opted to kick for the corner rather than attempt the three points. A superb touch- finder from Patchell allowed the Scarlets pack to drive forward before Patchell squeezed over in the corner for the opening try.
He added a superb touch-line conversion to add the extras to give the Scarlets an early 0 points to 7 lead.
Ulster’s Jo Cooney narrowed the visitor’s advantage following a penalty against the Scarlets at the scrum. He slotted over the simple kick to reduce the lead to 3 points to 7.
Another Cooney penalty 5 minutes later following a high tackle from Blommetjies brought Ulster back to within a point – 6 points to 7.
Following an extended period of advantage, Cooney was offered the opportunity to put the home side in the lead for the first time. His simple effort put Ulster ahead by 9 points to 7.
With half time looming, the penalty count against the Scarlets mounted and Cooney was offered another opportunity to extend Ulster’s lead, however, he didn’t quite have the legs and the score remained 9 points to 7 at the break.
The Scarlets were almost offered the dream start to the second half with Ken Owens crossing under the posts. However, the Irish TMO deemed that the Scarlets’ Captain had lost the ball forward during the grounding of the ball.
The injuries woes appeared to continue for the Scarlets as Rhys Patchell left the field for a Head Assessment following a collision at the tackle area. He was replaced by Dan Jones who was almost immediately called up to take an easy penalty attempt from straight in front of the posts. His successful kick put the visitors back in front by 9 points to 10.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last long as Jones turned from hero to villain as he was pinged for an off-side infringement. Cooney again stepped up to put the home side back ahead by 12 points to 10.
A sloppy penalty from Ulster who were penalised at the breakdown offered the Scarlets another simple penalty right in front of the posts. Again, Dan Jones was successful to put the Scarlets back in the lead once more by 12 points to 13.
With Ken Owens leaving the pitch, a certain James Davies was given a new title….Captain Cubby!
Unfortunately, the Scarlets faced ending the game with fourteen men as replacement, Ed Kennedy was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Henry Speight. Despite initial thoughts that the card could be red, Kennedy was deemed ‘fortunate’ to see yellow, even though the tackle was almost identical to an earlier tackle on Steff Evans.
Worryingly, Dan Jones was the latest of the Scarlets’ injury woes, and despite being down for an extended time, play was not stopped, effectively leaving the Scarlets with thirteen men.
Another extended advantage resulted in another Ulster penalty with Cooney offered the chance to kick for glory. It is possibly poetic justice that his attempt sailed wide, with just three minutes remaining of the game.
However, the game ended with heartbreak for the Scarlets as David Bullbring was penalised for tackling Cooney off the ball. As disastrous as the yellow card was, the fact that the penalty was right in front of the posts saw Cooney add his fifth to snatch the victory from the Scarlets by 15 points to 13.
As disappointing as this was, we have to remember that Ulster have only lost once to a Welsh region at home since 2013, and that was against the Scarlets in 2016. Taking into account the huge casualty list, along with the added injuries of Jonathan Davies, Rhys Patchell and Dan Jones, had it not been for a silly moment of madness from Fullbring, we would be celebrating an important away win, and despite the frustration, securing a losing bonus point could prove decisive during the business end of the season.
Next Saturday, the Scarlets welcome reigning Pro14 and European Champions Cup Champions Leinster to Parc y Scarlets. Kick-off is at 7.35pm.