Ospreys rout Ulster
Ulster suffered a humiliating defeat against a brilliant display by the Ospreys. They moved the ball, off-loaded from every tackle and showed their strength against a poor Ulster side who were devoid of anything adventurous.
Ulster always looked like they were going to play catch-up. Again plenty of indiscipline, and schoolboy tackling meant that Ulster were behind 19 nil going into the break.
Ulster looked to be leaderless until Steinmetz came on for Bryn, but Ulster never looked able to match The Ospreys' attacking play. Most of the 2nd period was played in the Ulster half, and to make matters worse Tommy scores! To be fair, he didn't celebrate openly!!!
Ulster's indiscipline let them down again, with two sinbinnings, Matt Mc Cullough and Botha given yellow cards apiece for indiscretions.
Lee byrne scored on 70 minutes and Ulster were well and truely finished as Hook slotted through another conversion. Fortunately Hook didn't have his kicking boots on tonight or the score really would have been over fifty.
In every situation, The Ospreys won the contact battle, Ulster unable to play the blitz defense suitably well to make a difference. Strong in the ruck, and with exceptional handling skills offloading at the tackle, the Ospreys deserved their win.
Before the end, Ferris who came on with 15 minutes to go, but was sin-binned for foul play with 8 left, having only played seven and missing the rest of the game.
More carelessness in Ulster's lineout meant that Bowe almost scored again in the corner. Philpot on for Brady waited too long to throw in the ball and the ref finally penalised him after repeated warnings.
A controversial Ospreys try in the dying minutes made no difference to their dominance, and James Hook took the final score to 43 points to nil.
An abject performance in nearly every area of the game. Ulster have fallen a long way from their hey day of Magners League Champions and Heineken Cup winners; It looks like they have an even longer journey to get back to any sort of form or Heineken qualification this season. A humiliating defeat indeed, and one wonders how Head Coach Matt Williams will re-invigorate the Ulster players after this one.
There are very, very few positives to take from this game, in fact I have rarely seen a team so out of their depth at this level of rugby. Someone mentioned before that the top tier of the Magners League is opening an ever-widening gap, and questions have to be raised about the ability of Ulster at the top of the management level to secure the future of professional rugby in the province on a par with Munster and Leinster.
Ospreys: Lee Byrne; Nikki Walker, Tommy Bowe, James Hook, Shane Williams; Daniel Biggar, Rhodri Wells; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Adam Jones, Andy Lloyd, Ian Evans, Jonathan Thomas, Marty Holah, Tom Smith.
Replacements: Huw Bennett, Duncan Jones, Ian Gough, Ryan Jones, Rhys Webb, Andrew Bishop, Gavin Henson.
Ulster: Bryn Cunningham; Timoci Nagusa, Rob Dewey, Andrew Trimble, Clinton Schifcofske; Niall O'Connor, Isaac Boss; Justin Fitzpatrick, Nigel Brady, BJ Botha; Carlo del Fava, Ryan Caldwell, Matt McCullough, Kieron Dawson, Robbie Diack.
Replacements: Stuart Philpott, Tom Court, Ed O'Donoghue, Stephen Ferris, Paul Marshall, Ian Humphreys, Paul Steinmetz.
Referee: Peter Allan (SRU, 22nd League game). Assistant Referees: James Jones (WRU), Alan Jenkins (WRU).
TMO: Tony Rowlands (WRU).