Williams, still laughing?

This is always a hard report to write. First game of the season, new, coach, new team, home game and a defeat. Natural loyalty to Ulster makes it difficult to pan the team to much but you can’t overlook some basic inadequacies.

Let’s get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. This defeat can be placed solely at the feet of the coaching staff. Llanelli were better prepared and looked sharper all over the pitch. Their pre-season obviously appears to have been spent working on a settled side whereas Ulster's was spent in experimentation. This was the first time that this starting fifteen had played together and unfortunately it showed. Llanelli were much quicker from kick off and their greater cohesion at the breakdown nullified any advantage Ulster had in the first half from the elements. When Ulster did start to gel, during the last quarter, they had left themselves with too much to do.

Starting Paddy at 10 was another mistake. He was obviously put there in anticipation of a running game and this would have been no bad thing against Stephen Jones, but as soon as the rains came down Williams should have had the courage to reconsider his selection and put the steadier O'Connor in place. Moving Wallace to the centre would have had the added benefit of keeping the two relatively inexperienced Llanelli centre's on their toes. As it was Jones completely dominated the game until O'Connor came on.

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