Ulster keep heads above water but Neil Doak left to count cost of bruising encounter

Ulster fulfilled the pre-match remit of winning with a bonus point, but the victory extracted a high tariff as five players went off injured.

Stuart Olding, Stuart McCloskey, Franco van der Merwe, Wiehahn Herbst and Nick Williams all left the field nursing a variety of ailments, from potential concussion to hamstring and arm injuries, prompting Ulster coach Neil Doak to accept the analogy that it resembled a war zone. "A few boys aren't looking good for next weekend. We just have to see how they come through the next 48 hours," he said.

“Who am I not talking about would be easier. The five guys who came off are a starting point. On match nights it’s hard to take stock.”

Scarlets also suffered some injury concerns ahead of the return fixture in west Wales, with openside flanker James Davies (ankle) and fullback Liam Williams (knock) name-checked by coach, Wayne Pivac.

Villainous role

The two players were central to the match script and both stepped into a villainous role. Davies received a yellow card on 12 minutes for a late and high hit on Ulster outhalf

Ian Humphreys

, the stupidity of which – the visitors conceded 14 points while he was off the pitch – wasn’t lost on Pivac. “It is what we would categorise as a dumb penalty. At this level of the game, hitting a guy late, there is no excuse for it. It cost us dearly.”

The New Zealander was less reconciled to the second yellow card, dished out to Williams for tipping over his Ulster counterpart Louis Ludik in a tackle on 35 minutes."It didn't warrant a penalty, let alone a yellow card," said Pivac. "If you can't lift a guy's legs and drive him sideways and into the ground on his shoulder, then I think there is something wrong with the game.

“It certainly wasn’t, in my view, a tip-up and drop on his head or anything like that; there was no malice in it. The referee’s comments were, ‘I think it is a yellow card.’ Well, if he’s not sure, he shouldn’t give one. You need to be 100 per cent.”

Upending a player in a tackle and bringing him past horizontal and down on his neck/shoulder area is a red card, irrespective of whether there is an injury or not. Williams didn’t lift his opponent into the air but he did tip him upside down, raising his legs in the process.

Doak didn’t really express a view ahead of next weekend’s trip to Parc y Scarlets. “Obviously whenever you lift legs up, there is always that doubt in the referee’s or TMO’s mind; so I haven’t really looked at it again.

“We have been on the receiving end of the fair share of yellow and red cards over the past wee while; that’s [the yellow he awarded] in the referee’s discretion and what he thought was the right decision.”

It wasn’t a fractious affair in the main and given the conditions of a wet sod, misting rain and a fresh northerly wind, there was some decent rugby to enjoy. The Scarlets were narrow in their patterns, but Ulster scored three tries through the backs, all of which bore a training-ground stamp.

Surging around

Humphreys, surging around on a loop outside his centres, threw a beautiful cut-out pass that put

Tommy Bowe

clear on the inside and the Ireland wing floated a lovely inside ball to the excellent

Darren Cave

.

It was Cave’s sharp inside line that made the definitive break for Ruan Pienaar’s try, while the Springbok scrumhalf gave Bowe his scoring pass.

Ulster's fourth and final try was a nod to forward power with captain Rory Best at the tiller of a rolling maul. The home's side pack – and a nod to the replacements bench who contributed handsomely – was excellent, especially Roger Wilson, Best and Dan Tuohy, who was returning from injury.

Pienaar might not have been happy with his own performance but he gave his side direction and executed impressively in the game’s big moments. Cave excelled, while Bowe’s class, in a high-quality performance from the back three, shone beacon-like in the leaden Belfast skies.

There are still ‘work-ons’. While the scrum was superb, Ulster lost five lineouts, the ball protection at ruck time was a little shabby, some of the tackling was brittle, and Humphreys – his general play was largely of a high standard – kicked two from six opportunities. On another day, they would present insurmountable obstacles to winning.

The Scarlets will present a more formidable prospect at home. They won’t play 20 minutes of the match with 14 players, be on the receiving end of a 16-9 penalty count, and make so many poor decisions.

Penalty count

Pivac admitted: “I was very disappointed. We came here with a view of getting the points. We certainly made too mistakes in terms of our defence, we fell off too many tackles. The penalty count let us down in the end. Two yellow cards and they got 14 points during the first one. That hurt.”

Ulster ticked off the first item on their ‘to-do’ list. The most pertinent issue ahead of next week’s game is who’ll be around to attempt the next item on the agenda.