Celtic League: If Mark McCall suspected he had a hard job when he first succeeded Alan Solomons, and in fairness he never doubted it, then he certainly nows it now. A lot of adjectives were floating around Ravenhill after this somewhat shoddy second successive home defeat, varying from "ominous" to "downright scary", and at the very least it must constitute a serious wake-up call.
In cutting his coaching teeth McCall and his assistant Allen Clarke haven't been helped by the exodus of heavyweight imports, such as Robbie Kempsonand Matt Sexton.
McCall is cultivating far more of a home-grown squad as well as a broader game, with an emphasis on passing in or before the tackle, but in much of this display they seemed to be putting the cart before the horse. Save for when Kevin Maggs was impressively going through his crash-ball routine, there was a reluctance to make the hard yards and Ulster often played into the hands of the Ospreys' umbrella defence.
More to the point, Solomons's three-year reign was built on the solid foundation of mastering the basics, but in virtually every department Ulster were slipshod. Receiving restarts, they were sometimes inept, their accuracy broke down at attacking setpieces, they coughed up possession cheaply and their defence wasn't nearly as aggressive as it has traditionally been.
"We were second best all night," admitted the coach. "Tactically we were very poor. We defended poorly, we threw the ball away time and time again, we received restarts really badly, our line-out didn't go all that well. So we've quite a lot to work on."
This was a risky, error-strewn and appallingly refereed if entertaining game, sprinkled with some quality tries, albeit against some decidedly breezy defending, and ultimately the Ospreys pulled away to win comfortably after overturning a 14-0 lead to score at almost a point a minute in the second period.
Ulster rarely used the first-half wind to establish a territorial foothold. Yet they manufactured two quality tries from deep, the resourceful Neil Best taking up a Bowe offload before the deftest blindside chip by Humphreys was gathered by the speedy Andy Maxwell to send the supporting Bryn Cunningham clear.
Then a sensational line from his own half by Wilson in taking a Humphreys offload was the prelude to Maggs crashing over and reaching out for the line from Shields's sharp pass. Yet it would prove insufficient, and soon it became clear that the 14-point buffer was made of straw.
More cohesive though they looked, the Ospreys didn't have to work that hard for their scores. The invitation back into the game came on a plate after Neil Best had been binned for shunting Barry Williams out of his defensive path just before the interval.
First Matt Mustchin and his lifters botched Gavin Henson's routine restart, then Lyndon Bateman and Barry Williams took out the passive blind-side cover with a skip pass and quick transfer for Shane Williams to dance through within 23 seconds of the kick-off.
After Johnny Bell's blind offload had been picked off by Steve Tandy, Ulster were quickly on the back foot again from a defensive scrum. Scottish referee David Changling wrongly adjudged Roger Wilson to have knocked on after Jason Spice had flicked the ball from his grasp. Even so, from the Ospreys' put-in and close-in recycle, Sonny Parker located a marshmallow fringe defence in putting David Bishop over.
Best returned but a third try in nine minutes followed when another blind pass by Bell was intercepted by Barry Williams and eventually Dave Tieuti scored off Shane Williams's pass.
Although Tommy Bowe outjumped Shane Williams to Humphreys's crosskick for the supporting Campbell Feather to score, Humphreys nailing an impossible conversion, Bishop again located a soft centre in the Ulster midfield for a bonus point and Henson's hefty boot steered the Ospreys home.
SCORING SEQUENCE - 11 minutes: Cunningham try, Humphreys con 7-0; 35 mins: Maggs try, Humphreys con 14-0; (half-time 14-0); 41 mins: Williams try, Henson con 14-7; 48 mins: Parker try, Henson con 14-14; 51 mins: Tieuti try, Henson con 14-21; 62 mins: Feather try, Humphreys con 21-21; 65 mins: Henson pen 21-24; 69 mins: Bishop try, Henson con 21-31; 71 mins: Humphreys pen 24-31; 78 mins: Henson pen 24-34; 80 mins: Henson drop goal 24-37.
ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, J Bell, K Maggs, A Maxwell; D Humphreys, N Doak; S Best, P Shields, R Moore, M Mustchin, M McCullough, A Ward (capt), R Wilson, N Best. Replacements: C Feather for Ward (36 mins), T Howe for Maxwell (44 mins), Campbell for Doak (52 mins), R Frost for Mustchin (57 mins), P Wallace for Cunningham (60 mins), N Brady for Shields (72 mins). Sin-binned: Best (40-50 mins).
OSPREYS: A Durston; D Tiueti, S Parker, D Bishop, S Williams; G Henson, J Spice; P James, B Williams (capt), A Jones, A Newman, L Bateman, A Lloyd, S Tandy, R Jones. Replacements: J Bater for R Jones (half-time), A Millward for D Jones, R Pugh for Tandy (both 66 mins), R Mustoe for Tieuti (80 mins), M Davies for B Williams, L Tait for Newman (both 82 mins), A Williams for Spice (85 mins).
Referee: David Changleng (SRU).
