Ulster A suffered their second successive defeat in the Celtic Cup, this time at the hands of Scarlets A at Shaws Bridge on Friday night.

It’s been a very disappointing start for Ulster A in this competition, having shipped 98 points in two matches.

They did enjoy a lead, for a short period of time in this game when Bruce Houston kicked an early penalty. However, Scarlets replied in kind and then added three converted tries to take a 3 – 24 lead into the break.

More woe for Ulster as Scarlets scored two more on resumption, taking their lead to 3 – 38 and with the game over as a contest Ulster finally managed to cross, just after the hour mark with Bradley Luney touching down and Houston converting.

Scarlets crossed for their sixth score shortly after, but Ulster had the last say with Aaron Hall crossing to give a final score of Ulster A 15 Scarlets A 45.

Ulster A: Iwan Hughes, Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Michael Lowry, Aaron Sexton, Bruce Houston, Graham Curtis, Peter Cooper, Peter Cromie, Paul McGookin, Matthew Dalton, Bradley Luney, Clive Ross, Matthew Agnew, Joe Dunleavy. Replacements: Claytan Milligan, Tommy O’Hagan, Michael Cromie, Jack Regan, Marcus Rea, Aaron Hall, Michael Stronge, Cormac Fox.

The results in the Celtic Cup are shown below.

Ulster A	15 – 45	Scarlets A	Cooke RFC
Leinster A	57 – 10	Cardiff A	Energia Park
Ospreys A	7 – 52	Munster A	Swansea RFC
Dragons A	53 – 38	Connacht A	CCSE Ystrad Mynach

Which leaves the two conferences as follows

Gallery below

Photo credit – Bob Given Photography