Evening all, and welcome to our minute-by-minute coverage of the Champions Cup clash between Ulster and the Scarlets.

Kick-off at the Kingspan Stadium is at 7.45pm. Man, Ulster could really do with a win.

If you’re not watching, Munster currently trail Clermont 16-6 with a little over 20 minutes to play. You can follow all the action from Thomond with my colleague Will Slattery here.

Of course, tonight’s game will be Ulster’s first at home since the death of Jack Kyle last week. The province are remembering the Grand Slam winner with this brilliant match programme:

Here’s the team news. As you probably know, Ulster welcome back scrum-half Ruan Pienaar for the first time since September while Dan Tuohy is also back following a broken arm.

15. L Ludik
14. T Bowe
13. D Cave
12. S Olding
11. C Gilroy
10. I Humphreys
9. R Pienaar
1. C Black
2. R Best (Capt)
3. W Herbst
4. D Tuohy
5. F v d Merwe
6. R Diack
7. R Wilson
8. N Williams

Replacements:

16. R Herring
17. A Warwick
18. D Fitzpatrick
19. A O’Connor
20. C Ross
21. P Marshall
22. S McCloskey
23. M Allen

Here’s the Scarlets team:

15. L Williams
14. H Robinson
13. R King
12. S Williams (c)
11. M Tagicakibau
10. R Priestland,
9. A Davies
1. R Evans
2. E Phillips
3. S Lee
4. J Ball
5. J Snyman
6. A Shingler
7. J Davies
8. R Pitman

Replacements:

16. K Myhill
17. P John
18. R Jones
19. G Earle
20. L Rawlins
21. R Williams
22. S Shingler
23. G Owen

Meanwhile, good news for Connacht in the Challenge Cup — they beat Bayonne 42-19 at the Sportsground. Read all about it here.

Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

It’s all over in Thomond — Clermont have beaten Munster 16-9

Right, enough about events down in Thomond, we’ve got a clean 80-minute slate ahead of us and Ulster players have just reached the end of their warm-up for this do-or-die encounter in the stadium formerly known as Ravenhill.

And in they go.

Here they come. The crowd singing their variation of their favourite Pet Shop Boys song, so you know kick-off is close.

KICK-OFF: 

We’re under way at Kingspan with Hump pinning Scarlets deep in the corner early on.

Scarlets kick clear. The early line-out form of Rory Best is not good however and the possession is lost.

PENALTY! Ulster 0 Scarlets 3 (Priestland ‘ 3)

Pretty cheap early penalty to give away from Ulster to start off with.

But, hold on, a charge down on Priestland has sent the visitors scrambling backwards to their own line.

Williams does well to get back out beyond his line and set up a clearing kick, but there’s a penalty coming for Ulster.

Oh, deary me. Ian Humphreys has blasted his penalty wide of the far post. A pretty straightforward effort for a man of his calibre from the 22 metre line.

James Davis pinged for not rolling away, so Humphreys will get another bite at the cherry now.

Wow. Humphreys takes aim and thumps another relatively easy opportunity wide of the mark.

I’d say he gets one more chance from any distance before Doak calls on Pienaar to take the tee.

Aside from the two misses, Ulster are looking fairly sharp.

Roger Wilson making his presence felt from openside and even after Dan Tuohy is driven backwards, his presentation allows Ulster the quick ball for Hump to raid the gap and sweep from right to left.

There’s even a bit of basketball skill from Rory Best before Cave’s knock-on brings a halt to the move.

SIN-BIN. At the beginning of that brilliant move, James Davies laid out Humphreys with a late hit. He’ll spend minutes 12  to 22 on the bench.

TRY! Ulster 5 Scarlets 3 (D Cave ‘ 14)

Ulster’s first attempt at capitalising on the extra man is scuppered but an attack on the right bring a big break from Tommy Bowe and the winger times his pass to perfection, cutting out two defenders with a looping pass inside to Cave.

Humphreys has found his kicking boots too.

Ulster 7 Scarlets 3

Presseye / Darren Kidd/INPHO Presseye / Darren Kidd/INPHO / Darren Kidd/INPHO

TRY! Ulster 14 Scarlets 3 (Pienaar ‘ 19)

Ulster are rocking now, but that’s a soft try for Scarlets to cough up.

First, Darren Cave ploughed right up the middle from 40 out, and once he was taken down his offload was popped up perfectly to Pienaar.

The scrum-half took the ball in two hands and put his head down, managing to burst through two tackles before diving for the line.

So Ulster are half-way to the bonus point they need to survive in this tournament. But will it matter in the final shake-up?

‘Scarlets are a team that can cut you open from anywhere on the pitch’, Ulster defence coach Jonny Bell says.

No doubt it wasn’t a new revelation to Dinger, but it came just a minute after a fine break from 22 to halfway by Rhys Priestland.

Fine defence from Ulster there as Scarlets lined up a central scrum inside the 22, but found a big hit when they moved right and coughed up a knock-on.

PENALTY! Ulster 14 Scarlets 6 (Priestland ‘ 29)

A good spell from the visitors yields another penalty and the Welsh out-half nails the chance from close on 40 metres.

Stuart Olding has a big ol’ bandage on his head now after the referee spotted a cut behind his ear.

Ulster dealing quite well with the Scarlets blitz defence here. The latest effort is a cross-field kick from Humphreys that bounces just in front of Bowe.

Williams was forced to stick a hand out, so it will be an Ulster line-out on 22.

Ach, the home side are just not able to sustain pressure at  the minute. After Gilroy dances through a gap, Ulster turn it over after trucking it up the middle and Priestland again makes yards on the counter attack.

Sin-bin: Liam Williams is in trouble here. He waited until Ludik landed after taking a high ball, but then he lifted the fullback’s legs as he turned and continued to apply downward force after Ludik’s head hit the turk.

Ulster again pinged on the ground, but this time Priestland is unable to find the target from just inside the opposition half.

HALF-TIME: Ulster 14 Scarlets 6

Here we go then, the second half is under way.

Confirmation there that Stuart Olding has not passed his pitchside assessment. Big Stu McCloskey in in the mix now.

Apologies for the delay in updates folks, but rest assured you’ve missed not a lot.

The second half has so far been blighted by bouts of kick-tennis from both sides.

Ooomph! Nasty head collision there as Nick Williams and Franco Van Der Merwe both move to tackle the same player.

Sore one.

And it signals a flood of replacements including Deccy Fitz coming in for the injured Wiehahn Herbst.

Nick Williams seems to have survived the clash, Alan O’Connor is in for FVDM.

51 minutes. Well, Scarlets shaped up with a complicated looking cluster of backs behind the scrum, but it was all a rouse for Scott Williams to burst through the gap in the confusion.

The centre makes a solid 30 yards from halfway, but in the the attempt to offload in the tackle, he knocks on.

Best moment of the second half by a long stretch.

PENALTY! Ulster 14 Scarlets 9 (Priestland ‘ 55)

Ulster never quite get their exit strategy right and concede a penalty for not rolling away. Priestland has his kicking boots back on and it’s game on!

That appears to have woken the hosts up. A penalty won on halfway is drilled to the corner by Pienaar and there’s a maul coming.

A litany of errors to be seen in Belfast now. Nick Williams is turned over after carrying out the back of the maul, but a big Bowe tackle forces a knock on as Scarlets aimed to attack on the turnover.

Scrum.

A lovely move off the back of a scrum ends with Bowe in the corner, but we’re with the TMO.

TRY! Ulster 19 Scarlets 9 (Bowe ’58)

Pienaar whipped the ball out of the scrum and ran right, getting the ball back after a loop play and feeding Bowe who made the yards after contact to bully his way into the corner.

Humphreys missed the conversion, by the way. Can’t fault him on this one, really tough effort from the touchline.

Nick Williams is headed for the sideline now with Clive Ross coming into the game. Also, Stuart McCloskey (having replaced Olding) is replaced by Mike Allen so Tommy Bowe will finish the game in the centre.

Right, now that the body count can stop for a while, Ulster have earned another penalty to set up a line-out on 10 metres.

Diack claims Best’s throw and the captain follows up the maul…

TRY! Ulster 24 Scarlets 9 (R Best ‘ 68)

It’s another miss from Wee Hump. He’s left four of his six efforts behind him, but it won’t harm Ulster’s chances tonight – just their points differential.

Sin-bin: That’s the end of Ruan Pienaar’s night. Job done and he takes his place on the bench with Paul Marshall in in place of Robbie Diack to close out the game.

5 minutes to go now.

FULL -TIME: Ulster 24 Scarlets 9

Job done for Ulster, but it was far from perfect and they still have a small mountain to climb in Pool 3.