ByCeri Coleman-PhillipsBBC Sport Wales,\u00a0AtBrewery Field<\/p>\n
Updated 8 minutes ago<\/p>\n
Ospreys (7) 21<\/p>\n
Tries: Foley, Ratti, Kasende Cons: Walsh 3<\/p>\n
Ulster (10) 10<\/p>\n
Tries: Ward, Stewart<\/p>\n
Ospreys kicked off a new block of United Rugby Championship fixtures with a nervy win over Ulster at the Brewery Field.<\/p>\n
Scrum-half Cormac Foley got them off to a dream start, only for Ulster to hit back with two quick tries from wing Zac Ward and hooker Tom Stewart.<\/p>\n
The 3,761-strong crowd then had a lengthy wait before flanker James Ratti and wing Daniel Kasende scored in the dying minutes, while Angus Bell had a try disallowed for the visitors.<\/p>\n
Ospreys remain ninth in the table, level on points with Bulls who occupy the final play-off place, while Ulster drop to sixth.<\/p>\n
Ospreys drew first blood just three minutes into the Bridgend contest.<\/p>\n
Ross Moriarty picked up from the back of the lineout and powered to within a metre of the line. From there it was all about speed of ball and a gap opened up for Foley to go over on his first Ospreys start.<\/p>\n
Ulster hit back soon after thanks to the vision of Nathan Doak, who had been released from Ireland's Six Nations camp. His cross-field dink landed into the grateful hands of Ward who had been hugging the touchline looking for space.<\/p>\n
A second try followed when Jude Postlethwaite won turnover ball not long after the re-start. The resulting kick gave Ulster the attacking platform from which to launch a devastating rolling maul, with Tom Stewart touching down from the base.<\/p>\n
The first-half tries dried up after 11 minutes, with Ulster the more threatening of the two sides, while Ospreys looked a little rusty after the international break.<\/p>\n
Dragons and Benetton battle out URC draw<\/p>\n
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Cardiff edge out Leinster to boost play-off hopes<\/p>\n
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Edinburgh mount comeback to beat Scarlets in URC <\/p>\n
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Chasing a three-point game, Mark Jones introduced Wales duo Reuben Morgan-Williams and Harri Deaves along with Tom Botha just a few minutes into the second-half.<\/p>\n
They got them on the front foot, but they were left to rue turning down a kickable penalty from a Doak offside when an isolated Deaves was held up over the line.<\/p>\n
Ospreys continued to squander chances as they dominated possession and territory, but basic errors let Ulster off the hook as the clock ticked down.<\/p>\n
The breakthrough eventually came 10 minutes from time.<\/p>\n
Replacement hooker Lewis Lloyd took a quick-tap penalty before Ratti recycled and crashed over to send the home crowd wild.<\/p>\n
Jack Walsh kicked the conversion to give Ospreys a four-point lead, but it was one they could not defend as Ulster re-took the lead on 73 minutes through Bell's close-range effort.<\/p>\n
And just as Ulster thought they had nicked it, play was dramatically brought back for a dangerous clear-out on Owen Watkin, with referee Fillipo Russo showing Marcus Rea a yellow card.<\/p>\n
Ospreys rallied and went back to the other end of the pitch and an error from full-back Mike Lowry allowed Kasende to pounce on a loose ball to make sure of the result, with Ulster heading back to Northern Ireland empty handed.<\/p>\n
Ospreys: Hopkins; Kasende, Watkin, K Williams, Giles; Walsh, Foley; G Thomas, Parry (co-capt), Henry, Fender, R Smith, Ratti, Moriarty, Morse.<\/p>\n
Replacements: L Lloyd, S Thomas, Botha, Sutton, Deaves, Morgan-Williams, Scully, Boshoff.<\/p>\n
Ulster: Lowry; Kok, Hume, Postlethwaite, z Ward, Muprhy; O'Sullivan, Stewart, Wilson, Henderson, Irvine, Dalton, McCann, B Ward.<\/p>\n
Replacements: Herring, Bell, O'Connor, Sheridan, Rea, McKee, Flannery, Carson.<\/p>\n
Referee: Fillipo Russo (Italy)<\/p>\n
Assistants: Craig Evans (Wales ) and Keith David (Wales)<\/p>\n
TMO: Stefano Penne (Italy)<\/p>\n
Late surge sees Ospreys beat Ulster in BridgendImage source, Huw Evans Picture AgencyImage caption, Wales prop Gareth Thomas made his 150th appearance for OspreysByCeri Coleman-PhillipsBBC Sport Wales…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}