Ulster 13 Ospreys16:AFTER LAST week's collapse to Leinster, another defeat was hardly the panacea Matt Williams was seeking to cure Ulster's late season slump which has seen them lose four of their last five Magners League outings.

Williams had made three changes to the side after the 32-6 reverse at the RDS, but got little improvement as despite the effort there little control from Ulster.

Apart from the scrums, where the front row of Brendon Botha, Rory Best and Bryan Young had the upper hand, Ulster failed to impress and with Connacht’s bonus-point win over the Dragons the remainder of the season could yet rekindle real concerns around Ravenhill.

A 75th-minute try from Ospreys number eight former All Black Filo Tiatia, which was decided upon by the TMO and converted by James Hook gave the visitors the win, ahead of next week’s seismic Heineken Cup quarter final clash with Munster at Thomond Park. Simon Danielli’s 68th-minute try had given Ulster the lead after a dismal first half.

The severely depleted visitors, without ex-Ulster hero Tommy Bowe, had the best of the early exchanges with two James Hook penalties putting them 6-0 ahead after the first quarter.

There was little of note from the home side with the ball in hand or through their wayward tactical kicking, apart from several Danielli bursts out of defence and a solitary Clinton Schifcofske penalty just after the half hour mark.

Early in the second half an Isaac Boss clearance was charged down by Tom Smith only for the Ospreys to fail in pouncing on the loose ball bobbling close to Ulster’s line.

Then Ulster had a rare moment when a Paddy Wallace hack through – the Ulster centre again ended the game with his head bandaged – saw Boss wrap up David Bishop forcing the Ospreys winger to concede the penalty.

However, Schifcofske under-cooked the kickable attempt.

After 62 minutes the Ulster full back had another penalty chance from the same range but this time pushed it wide. Three minutes later he finally levelled the score from a more favourable angle.

Then O’Connor launched a cross-kick which sat up nicely for Danielli and the Scotland winger ran clear to dive under the posts. Schifcofske converted to put Ulster into the lead for the first time in the 68th minute.

Ulster were penalised from the restart and Hook cut the deficit and from there to the end, the Ospreys had the upper hand.

Ulster were besieged in their own 22 and after a series of pick and drives Tiatia burrowed over for the score. Hook added the extras and Ulster had to be content with a losing bonus point.

ULSTER:C Schifcofske; S Danielli, D Cave, P Wallace, A Trimble, N OConnor, I Boss; B Young, R Best (Capt), B Botha; E ODonoghue, R Caldwell; C Henry, D Pollock, R Diack. Replacements: D Del Fava for Caldwell (71 mins), T Court for Young (74).

OSPREYS: G Owen; D Bishop, J Spratt, A Bishop, J Vaughton; J Hook, M Phillips; Pl James (Capt), H Bennett, C Griffiths; A-W Jones, A Lloyd; T Smith, S Tandy, F Tiatia. Replacements: F Levi for Lloyd, R Hibbard for Bennett (both 65 mins).

Referee:P Allan (SRU).