Depleted ‘A’ team are taught a harsh lesson by the Scarlets

IT proved to be a horrible outing for Ulster ‘A’ as they were on the wrong end of a six-try tanking at Shaw’s Bridge in last night’s Celtic Cup second round clash.

The result was Ulster’s second successive defeat in the competition after losing to Leinster last weekend, and now looks to have done terminal damage to their chances of finishing top of the conference.

Ulster were struggling from the off as Scarlets were dominant at the scrum and largely destroyed the hosts at the breakdown as well as being able to attack with pace and accuracy.

The game’s key moment came in the 24th minute when fullback Iwan Hughes was shown yellow by referee Joy Neville after Scarlets flanker Lewis Ellis-Jones was held up short of the line.

During the 10 minutes Hughes — a former Wales U16 player — was in the bin, the Scarlets put 21 points on the scoreboard, taking it from a mere 3-3 to 24-3 through three well-taken tries.

And after ending the half that far ahead, the Scarlets had their bonus try soon after the restart and went on to score three more touchdowns, though Kieran Campbell’s men did manage two of their own tries from debutant lock Bradley Luney and sub Aaron Hall.

A huge amount of work now needs to be done by Campbell and Willie Anderson, who, in fairness, had a squad diluted by a combination of players being with the seniors in South Africa and those who are injured.

Bruce Houston opened the scoring with a third-minute penalty for the home side, who had the wind in the first half, but after 10 minutes Angus O’Brien levelled after Ulster were penalised for not releasing.

Centre Corey Baldwin dropped the ball for a bad knock-on in the 20th-minute attack but Scarlets then shunted Ulster off the subsequent scrum and after Ellis-Jones was held short, referee Neville called play back to send Hughes to the bin even though winger Robert Baloucoune thought he was clear with an interception.

Scarlets took a scrum as they were under Ulster’s posts and Baldwin skated in with O’Brien converting his 25th-minute score, the first of six conversions for the Scarlets out-half.

Five minutes later and winger Tomi Lewis raced in to the corner after Scarlets had turned Ulster over in the visitors’ half and attacked down the right wing.

O’Brien added a superb conversion to put Scarlets 17-3 ahead.

On 34 minutes some slick hands saw Morgan Williams score near the posts and O’Brien again converted and the half ended with the Scarlets leading 24-3.

The bonus-point score was inevitable and Scarlets had it three minutes after the restart when Kieran Hardy easily touched down close to the posts off a retreating Ulster scrum, O’Brien kicking his fourth conversion.

Try No.5 came shortly afterwards from Ellis-Jones and O’Brien did the needful to put Scarlets 38-3 ahead.

Ulster finally got some return when lock Luney drove over in the 55th minute for the hosts with Houston converting but the Scarlets struck back with sub Ryan Conbeer’s sprinting over as the rain began to fall with all that remained a late consolation score from Ulster sub Hall. ULSTER ‘A’: I Hughes, R Balacoune, M Lowry (capt), J Hume, A Sexton, B Houston, G Curtis; P Cooper, P Cromie, P McGookin, M Dalton, B Luney, C Ross, M Agnew, J Dunleavy Subs: C Milligan, T O’Hagan, M Cromie, J Regan, M Rea, A Hall, M Strong, CFox