PRO12: Ulster 28 Scarlets 17

Ulster cruised through to the PRO12 Final thanks to an 18 minute burst either side of half time, beating Llanelli Scarlets 28 – 17 at Ravenhill on Friday night.

Tommy Bowe sparked Ulster’s purple patch on the 25th minute with Robbie Diack adding Ulster’s second nine minutes later, to give Ulster an 18 – 3 lead at the break. Tom Court battled his way to the line to put Ulster out of sight on the 43rd minute and Ruan Pienaar completed the scoring with three penalties and two conversions.

OK that’s the match facts out of the way and though Ulster somewhat cruised to this victory, with Llanelli scoring two late tries after the game was won, I’m still somewhat sceptical as to the ease with which Ulster pulled clear. The reason for my concern is due to, yet another, shocking display from Alain Rolland who really is a parody of the referee he used to be. Strangely I found myself feeling sorry for the Scarlets as Rolland refereed them out of the game in a shockingly arrogant and somewhat lazy display . . .