AT the final whistle, the handshakes were brief to the point of being curt all round but offence was neither meant nor taken on either side as the players and officials sprinted for the refuge of the dressing rooms, away from the nightmarish rain and wind that had hammered away all game. When they got there, the Ulster players were left with much to stew over - the first home defeat for four years in the Heineken Cup and another early exit from the competition in the macro sense, an afternoon pockmarked with mistakes and missed opportunities in the micro. They leave behind them a seriously impressive Llanelli side who, given a fair wind in the draw for the quarter-finals, will take a fair amount of beating.

Ulster started the game without David Humphreys at out-half and lost his replacement Paddy Wallace before half time and yet they still had enough ball, territory and chances in the first half to put a sizeable lead on the scoreboard to defend after the turnaround. They went in just 11-7 ahead, however, and were duly punished by the Welsh side upon the restart.

"We didn't take our opportunities today, " said Ulster assistant coach Allan Clarke afterwards, "and that's what's most disappointing about it.

We were in a position where we had two or three clear opportunities in the first half to score tries and we just made mistakes at the wrong times.

"The wind was such a telling factor out there that we knew we had to be further ahead at half time. I think something like a 14-point lead going in at the break would have asked questions of the opposition and would have made them have to chase the game and maybe lose patience. That wasn't to be and Llanelli played very well."

The first 10 minutes foretold in spades the effect the weather would have on the afternoon. Paddy Wallace only had to chip a thirdminute penalty up into the air to allow the wind carry it through the posts to send Ulster into the lead, whereas even as safe a pair of boots as Stephen Jones was foiled when he attempted a 30metre kick from straight in front of the posts shortly afterwards. And it only got worse. By half time, the rain was sheeting down; by the start of the second half, it was positively torrential; and for a few minutes at the end, it reached monsoon proportions It should have been an equal pox on both houses, though. The difference turned out to be that Llanelli kept what mistakes the weather would induce to a relative minimum whereas Ulster seemed to reserve theirs for the times when they would do most damage.

Spilled balls here, misplaced kicks there - it all added to the general air of frustration and annoyance around Ravenhill.

A perfect case in point came after 23 minutes. Ulster were 8-0 ahead by this stage, Tommy Bowe having beaten Mark Jones to a Kieran Campbell kick ahead to collect and touch down after 15 minutes. But then, when Llanelli number eight - and eventual man of the match - Alix Popham was sent to the bin for a high tackle on Wallace, Paul Steinmetz turned down the kick at goal in favour of one to the corner.

But he overcooked it in the wind and it went out of play in-goal and gave Llanelli a chance to clear their lines.

Insult was added to injury - literally, since Wallace never managed to shake off the after-effects of Popham's tackle and was replaced by Adam Watkins - when Popham's first action upon his return was to score the try that was the game's turning point.

It left just a point in it with three minutes left to half time and but for a successful Steinmetz penalty from pretty much the same spot as the one he earlier made a mess of, that would have been it at the break.

They held their four-point lead until 15 minutes into the second half and were actually the better side for that period but couldn't get across the Llanelli line. And when Justin Fitzpatrick's first act off the bench was to spill a simple pass, Llanelli were ruthless in converting, Regan King slicing through after good work from Dwayne Peel to send the Welsh side into a 14-11 lead.

From there, the outcome wasn't in any real doubt, short of whether or not Llanelli would get the bonus point. They ran in three tries in the last 15 minutes through full-back Morgan Stoddart, Peel and flanker Gavin Thomas.

ULSTER M Bartholomeusz; T Bowe, A Trimble, P Steinmetz, P McKenzie; P Wallace, K Campbell; B Young, R Best, S Best (c), J Harrison, M McCullough, N Best, K Dawson, R Wilson Subs A Larkin for Wallace, 38 mins; J Fitzpatrick for Young, 56 mins; T Barker and K Maggs for Harrison and Steinmetz, 60 mins; R Caldwell for McCullough, 75 mins LLANELLI Scarlets M Stoddart; D James, R King, G Evans, M Jones; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, M Rees, D Manu, A Jones, S MacLeod, S Easterby (c), G Thomas, A Popham Subs M Watkins for M Jones, 38 mins; J Davies for I Thomas, 67 mins; D Jones for Popham, 74 mins; V Cooper for A Jones, 75 mins; K Owens, C Stuart-Smith and C Thomas for Rees, Peel and James, 79 mins Yellow card Popham Referee J Jutge (France)