David Humphreys was in fine kicking form

Swansea, though, had the home side creaking under their heavyweight pack in the set pieces.

It was Ulster who were the first to break though in the seventh minute thanks to the jinking running of Paddy Wallace.

Wallace, who already looks the find of the season with an assured display at full-back, brought play into the Cardiff ''22''.

Ulster's pack did the work at the business end with the ball recycled a number of times to suck in the defence and allow scrum-half Brad Free to race in at the posts.

Humphreys converted and then scored a penalty in the 19th minute to ease some early nerves.

Swansea, without most of their big names, only fleetingly put Ulster under pressure.

But they made one a good spell count in the 20th minute with Shaun Payne crashing over after their pack stole possession.

Sitting pretty

Henson converted, but in first half stoppage time, Ulster drove over from a line-out with hooker Paul Shields getting the touchdown and Humphreys landing the conversion.

Ulster were sitting pretty at the break and with only 20 seconds gone in the second half Humphreys chipped over a dropped goal from 30 metres.

Henson scored a penalty in the 49th minute before limping off to give Swansea some hope.

Adam Larkin fed Topping for Ulster's third try

But Ulster ended much the stronger and were able to pounce on a mistake by the Swansea defence to sew up the game.

Humphreys launched a massive clearance kick from his own line, and when Matthew Robinson and Morgan messed things up, Ulster countered with devastating effect.

Adam Larkin was up quickly to sieze the loose ball on the Swansea 10-metre line and he made ground before tossing out a scoring pass to right-wing James Topping.

Humphreys converted to wrap up an excellent game for the Irish fly-half who contributed 15 points with that devastating right boot.

Ulster: P Wallace; J Topping, J Bell, A Larkin, J Cunningham; D Humphreys, B Free; J Fitzpatrick, P Shields, S Best, P Johns, G Longwell, R Brink, T McWhirter, A Ward (capt).

Replacements: J Davidson for Johns (46); C Boyd for Fitzpatrick (29); M Haslett for Brink (74).

Swansea: K Morgan (capt); R Rees, S Payne, S Winn, M Robinson; G Henson, S Martens; G Mason, J Marsters, B Evans, L Jones, J Griffiths, G Lewis, D Thomas, H Jenkins.

Replacements: A Le Chavalier for Mason (10); C Wells for Marsters (47); M Brailley for Morgan (49); G Swales for Henson (49); J Bater for Thomas (51); B Breton for Jones (75); G Swales for Martens (75).

Referee: C White (England).