Ulster were hammered in their opening Magners League clash last weekend against the Newport Gwent Dragons and were clear underdogs going in tonight’s encounter. However the big spending Ospreys were the ones leaving the ground with their tails between their legs after a under par performance.
Ulster took the game to their opponents from the outset with fly half Ian Humphreys pulling the strings. He was instrumental in putting the Irish side ahead when he broke through the first line of defence. The ball was swiftly moved to rampaging winger Timoci Nagusa who burst clear before offloading to the supporting second row Dan Tuohy who dived over wide out.
The misfiring Ospreys full further behind when Jonny Vaughton’s pass was intercepted by Humphreys who scampered clear before giving the faster Simon Danielli a clear run to the line.
The home pack failed to give Michael Phillips a platform to work from. He was often under pressure when getting the ball which gave his outside backs little chance to show their attacking potential.
To their credit the Ospreys hit back with an excellent try themselves. Andrew Bishop and Mike Phillips burst clear up to the halfway line before offloading to winger Nikki Walker who sped to the line.
Humphreys kicked a penalty to take the visitors to a 15-8 lead but they let the Ospreys back in at the death of the first half when Humphreys mistakingly kicked the ball dead thinking the first half was over. All he accomplished was gifting the ball back to the Ospreys who drove over replacement prop Duncan Jones. With James Hook missing the conversion Ulster led 15-13 at the break.
Hook put the Ospreys in front early in the second spell with a well struck penalty but Ulster refused to go away. Nagusa found Ian Whitten who passed to Danielli who side stepped Jerry Collins to waltz over for his second try of the match.
A disappointed Ospreys captain Ryan Jones said after the match, “We made too many mistakes, it’s as simple as that, and take nothing away from Ulster they capitalised on them.
“They were deserved winners. We seemed to come off second-best at important break-downs. Discipline a couple of times cost us dearly and we came off second-best in quite a few facets of the game.
“But we’re still building, hopefully we won’t lose again at home this season because it will be a stark wake-up call tomorrow morning.”
