Lealiifano holds his nerve to sink champions

THE talented Wallaby fly-half Christian Lealiifano showed what he was made of as he guided Ulster to victory over defending champions Scarlets in an exciting PRO14 clash at the Kingspan Stadium last night.

Lealiifano (right) played the most important role since his arrival in Belfast and his comeback following his recovery from leukaemia just over 12 months ago.

In harness with his halfback partner John Cooney they steered Ulster home in the big Conference B clash.

Cooney had earlier landed five penalties that encompassed a very confident performance before Lealiifano took over the kicking duties with eight minutes remaining.

Showing cool, calm nerves, the Australian landed a long-range penalty to level the game at 20-20 just as the Scarlets were ready to steal victory.

Then, with two minutes remaining, replacement hooker John Andrew was on the end of a sweeping move to score and Lealiifano converted with aplomb.

Cooney gave Ulster a 9-3 lead at the break with Leigh Halfpenny getting Scarlets’ first points of the game.

Cooney and Halfpenny swapped penalties at the start of the second half, before everything turned lively in a 10-minute scoring burst.

First Halfpenny rattled over a penalty in the 57th minute and a minute later he converted a try by Johnny McNicholl. But in a flash, back came Ulster with Jacob Stockdale finishing off a sweeping move in the corner.

The scoring continued as Scarlets used sweet hands to send replacement Jonathan Davies over with Halfpenny again converting to send them into a 20-17 lead with 12 minutes remaining.

Then came that Lealiifano penalty to square things up before the dramatic Andrew try, before Lealiifano made sure Ulster would not be beaten with that sweet right foot splitting the uprights.