Any more weekends like this and English clubs will start to believe the European rugby summit can be conquered after all. This was hardly the stiffest test Wasps will face along the way but a hat-trick for the winger Kenny Logan in an eight-try demolition of Ulster ensured a full set of wins for all four English sides involved in this weekend's Heineken programme.

With the first-choice locks Simon Shaw and Mark Weedon and scrum-half Andy Gomarsall all rested, a luxury Wasps could not afford last season when they failed to make the quarter-finals, the Shepherd's Bush challenge already looks more serious. Others will highlight the lack of French opposition in their pool; Wasps will point to the scoreboard.

On the other hand, as in Glasgow last weekend, it does seem to take them time to hit the accelerator. Logan's hat-trick did not arrive until the start of the final quarter, and the director of rugby Nigel Melville is still looking for improvement in that area.

"We didn't start particularly well although in the second half we started to put things together," he said. "We're nowhere near the level where we want to be, but there is nothing wrong with our fitness."

Logan has proved an outstanding success since moving to London and is the sort of quality finisher any top side could accommodate. It is the Scot's good fortune to be surrounded by strong, direct runners like Rob Henderson, Nick Greenstock and Gareth Rees, whose ability to break through tiring defences in the closing stages is becoming a regular feature.

"Kenny's not a man with 80 metres of pace in him but he has great balance and vision and knows where the line is. You can't ask for more than that from a winger," said Melville.

Those studying the respective full-backs before kick-off worried on Ulster's behalf. At 5 ft 8 in and 12 stone, the fresh-faced Robin Morrow might almost have reminded his rather beefier opposite number Rees of the schoolboys he teaches at Eton.

It was Ulster, though, who started the brighter with Stan McDowell bundled into touch at the corner flag after an initial break from Maurice Field and the visitors forced two separate line-outs right on their opponents' line which Wasps did well to neutralise.

With the resources available to them, losing McDowell on a stretcher with an ankle injury in the 13th minute was a heavy blow and Ulster did well to be level at 3-3 after half an hour following an exchange of penalties from Rees and Stuart Laing.

It all started to unravel when Morrow was unable to pluck a bad pass off his toes and Shane Roiser won a kick-and-chase to score. Scrum-half Martyn Wood then added a second six minutes later after a move which featured half a dozen pairs of hands and, at 15-3, Ulster's good early work had mostly gone unrewarded.

Hooker Simon Mitchell, who, along with Ulster's Robert Irwin, received a yellow card late in the second-half, rubbed it in two minutes after the interval and, once Logan had completed his 11minute trio, there were further late scores for Nick Greenstock and Alex King.

Rees, presented with Wasps' player of the year award before kick-off, kicked five conversions and two penalties to add to his European tally, having let slip in the programme that his ideal dinner party guests would include Nelson Mandela, Liz Hurley and Eddie Izzard. Heaven knows where that particular conversation would lead, but presumably the art of goalkicking might be left until the mints had disappeared.

Ulster, fielding only two internationals, were increasingly powerless to stem the black tide. The game ended with Dallaglio on the wing and Rees aiming gridiron passes and borrowing a spectator's drink after missing the final conversion. The coach Rob Smith even won himself £20 by predicting Glasgow would beat Swansea. It was that sort of day.