An exceptionally strong Ulster Ravens side only managed to come away with a 21 –21 draw against a young Llanelli side on Friday night.
Didn’t see the game, but by all accounts it was a fairly lacklustre performance by the Ulster side who appeared to have a degree of difficulty with some of the refereeing decisions.
Niall O’Connor scored two penalties, Paul Marshall chased up to score from a chip from Tommy Seymour and Mark McCrea went over for the Ravens’ second which was converted by Ian Humphreys. Humphreys went on to add what looked to be a match winning penalty as the game neared an end.
Unfortunately some poor defence let Llanelli in for a match saving try in the closing moments.
With group rivals London Welsh scoring a bonus point against Bedford Blues on Saturday this leaves the Ravens in second place in Pool C, a result that adds considerable spice to the Ravens’ home match against London Welsh on Friday 26th February. KO 7:30pm.
The Ravens now need to either win without London Welsh getting a losing bonus or win with a try scoring bonus themselves and will, more than likely, need to follow this up with a bonus point win against Aberavon in March to ensure they progress into the Semi Finals in April.
| Pool C Table: Saturday, 13 February 2010 | ||||||||
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | |
|
1 |
London Welsh | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 47 | 15 |
|
2 |
Ulster | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 82 | 45 | 12 |
|
3 |
Bedford | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 52 | 79 | 5 |
|
4 |
Aberavon | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 52 | 4 |
|
5 |
Llanelli | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 61 | 76 | 3 |
|
6 |
Moseley | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 48 | 70 | 1 |



I hope this wasn’t a case of some players thinking “I’m to good for this team” syndrome and not putting in the effort.
I’m told the ref was pretty poor though.