Ulster 47 Ospreys 17
Ulster produced the ideal response to last weekend’s home defeat to Leinster as they ran in seven tries to easily see off a diluted and misfiring Ospreys side in Belfast.
Luke Marshall and Sam Carter scored two tries each with the remainder made up from touchdowns from John Andrew, Stuart McCloskey and Marcus Rea, while John Cooney ended up with 12 points from six conversions.
Though the Welsh region were missing most of their frontliners and lost skipper Dan Lydiate and Stephen Myler just before kick-off, Ulster were also without a hefty number of players and demonstrated their greater squad depth to swat the Ospreys aside.
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Ulster were up and running before a minute was gone when Marshall was put through a gap by Ian Madigan after the Ospreys failed to adequately clear the kick-off, allowing the home side to launch a trademark maul.
Cooney converted and did so again six minutes later when Andrew dotted down from a lineout maul which was driven over the line.
The Ospreys then hit back and after Morgan Morris’s break, a penalty was put into the corner and from the maul Jac Morgan drove over with Jack Walsh converting.
Morgan and Walsh then combined again to deny Nick Timoney a score in the 19th minute after a surge from Duane Vermeulen and Timoney’s jinky run.
However, three minutes later they had their third when Sam Carter bashed over after McCloskey’s strong run, with Cooney bisecting the posts again.
Five minutes later, Walsh kicked a long-range penalty after Ulster were penalised at a scrum.
But Ulster continued their dominance and had their bonus point seven minutes before the break when McCloskey and Marshall combined again with the latter crossing for his second. Cooney banged over his fourth straight conversion and Ulster now led 28-10 which ended the scoring in the opening half.
The new half was just a minute old when Rob Lyttle’s run, Timoney’s drive and Michael Lowry’s assist allowed McCloskey stroll over for try number five though Cooney missed his first kick of the evening.
The next score came on 64 minutes when Carter drove over from close range for his second and Ulster’s sixth which Cooney converted.
With six minutes remaining, replacement Marcus Rea dotted down. Cooney added the two points, but the game ended with Morris crashing over for the visitors and Walsh converting.
ULSTER: M Lowry; C Gilroy, L Marshall, S McCloskey, R Lyttle; I Madigan, J Cooney; E O’Sullivan, J Andrew, M Moore; A O’Connor (capt), S Carter; N Timoney, J Murphy, D Vermeulen.
Replacements: T O’Toole for Moore (11 mins); B Burns for Madigan (h-t); A Sexton for McCloskey (41); A Warwick for O’Sullivan, F Bradshaw-Ryan for O’Connor (both 52); Marcus Rea for Vermeulen, D Shanahan for Burns (both 61); D Moore for Andrew (77).
Ospreys: M Nagy; L Morgan, O Watkin, M Collins, K Giles; J Walsh, R Morgan-Williams; G Thomas, D Lake, T Botha; R Davies, H Sutton; W Griffiths (capt), J Morgan, M Morris.
Replacements: J Regan for Griffiths (53); S Baldwin for Lake, N Smith for Thomas, R Henry for Botha, C Evans for Nagy, J Hawkins for Collins (all 61 mins); H Deaves for Morgan (66), R Webb for Giles (70).
Referee: B Blain (SRU).
