Pool Two/Ospreys 48 Ulster 17:Class and confidence predictably told at the Liberty Stadium last night. An Ospreys side still very much in contention and hell-bent on keeping pace with Gloucester in Pool Two's two-way tussle duly extended Ulster's miserable run to one win in 10 matches, exposing many of their inadequacies along the way.
Ulster had a go, Tommy Bowe illuminating their performance with some brave catches, daring counters, hard running and offloading. Neil Best and Rory Best carried well too, Paddy Wallace showed some nice touches without quite looking like a convincing or confident controlling presence but most of all Ulster were carrying too many players defensively in a quick-fire game on a dry track, notably in their tight five.
Furthermore, the Ospreys boasted far better offloading skills and pace throughout their more expensively assembled side in a glaring demonstration of the increasing shift in power and resources between the Welsh regions and the Irish provinces.
Whenever the Ospreys upped the pace, with Justin Marshall having the freedom of the park to pull the strings off much quicker ball, Ulster were barely clinging on.
Ulster showed a willingness to offload from the start, a neat interchange between Rory Best and Justin Harrison allowing Justin Fitzpatrick to rumble, but were denied an early platform by Paddy Wallace's miscued penalty to touch. Not so James Hook, after he had been rather blatantly taken out chasing his own chip by Andrew Trimble.
From third-phase ball off the ensuing lineout Sonny Parker had a simple run-in for his third try of the tournament.
The trouble with Ulster engaging the Ospreys in a loose game, made looser by an abundance of poor kicks, was that the home side were quicker and more skilled from one to 15.
Chris White then harshly penalised the 20-year-old Ulster flanker David Pollock for not rolling away for Hook to make it 8-0 and gradually the die was being cast, with Ulster on the back foot and in defensive mode as the Ospreys controlled the throw-ins and recycled quickly.
The high point of their first-half performance came at the end of the first quarter. A multi-phase attack produced rapid-fire ruck ball and the move began with Nikki Walker countering from inside his own half when beating Isaac Boss on the outside and ended with Justin Marshall stepping out of Bryn Cunningham's tackle to score under the posts.
Perhaps becoming giddy, errors crept into the Ospreys game, and turning over the ensuing restart led to Wallace opening Ulster's account.
Yet there was an inevitability about the Ospreys cranking it up again with the proverbial post-interval flea in their ear from Lyn Jones, all the more so when they started to go through the phases quickly again against Ulster's standoffish defence.
Marhsall's hand-off of Wallace was a case in point before the width was provided by Marshall, Hook, Williams and, with a neat line for a loose-head, Duncan Jones, for lock Alun-Wyn Jones to saunter in.
Realising that the muscle was now ebbing away from Ulster's tackling, the Ospreys just began running hard and straight - Marty Holah blasting through Justin Harrison and Justin Fitzpatrick and a host of other white shirts for a quick-fire bonus-point try by Filo Tiatia that, from an Ulster perspective, was embarrassing.
Another temporary and surprising reprieve came by way of an Isaac Boss try, the scrumhalf showing his ability as a broken-field runner when feinting a return pass to Trimble before straightening through tackles by Duncan and Alun-Wyn Jones in what was definitely an unplanned move.
A well-worked 8-9-11 scrum move saw Danielli cut through a gap created by Rob Dewey's decoy run but Lee Byrne easily handed off Rob Dewey after Trimble had gone for an intercept and Young had the misfortune to be stationed on the wing when Hook crosskicked for Shaun Connor to gather and put Walker over for the Ospreys' seventh try.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: Parker try 5-0; 14 mins Hook pen 8-0; 20 mins Marshall try, Hook con 15-0; 23 mins Wallace pen 15-3; (half-time 15-3); 45 mins A-W Jones try, Hook con 22-3; 48 mins Tiatia try, Hook con 29-3; 54 mins Boss try, Wallace con 29-10; 54 mins Boss try, Wallace con 29-10; 63 mins Walker try, Hook con 36-10; 69 mins Danielli try, Wallace con 36-17; 76 mins Byrne try 41-17; 80 mins Walker try, Hook con 48-17.
OSPREYS: L Byrne; N Walker, M Taylor, S Parker, S Williams; J Hook, J Marshall; D Jones, H Bennett, Adam Jones, Alun-Wyn Jones, I Evans, J Thomas, M Holah, F Tiatia (capt). Replacements: R Hibbard for Bennett (47 mins), I Gough for Tiatia (54 mins), M Phillips for Marshall (64 mins), A Bishop for Parker (65 mins), C Griffiths for A Jones, B Lewis for Holah (both 70 mins), S Connor for Williams (73 mins).
ULSTER RUGBY: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, P Steinmetz, S Danielli; P Wallace, I Boss; J Fitzpatrick, R Best (capt), B Young, J Harrison, C Del Fava, N Best, D Pollock, M McCullough. Replacements: R Caldwell for Harrison, R Dewey for Steinmetz (both 60 mins), D Fitzpatrick for J Fitzpatrick (64 mins), N O'Connor for Daniellie (70 mins), K Campbell for Boss (72 mins), M Miles for R Best (74 mins). Not used: K Dawson.
Referee: Chris White (England).
