Ian Humphreys orchestrated a fine away win for Ulster at the Liberty Stadium against the big-spending Ospreys.
The fly-half's break led to the opening try for lock Dan Tuohy and also picked off an Ospreys pass for Simon Danielli to claim the first of his two scores.
The Ospreys scored a classy try of their own through Nikki Walker, plus one from prop Duncan Jones, but were let down by James Hook's place-kicking.
Danielli's second sealed the result after good work from Timoci Nagusa.
After an early penalty from Ospreys fly-half Hook, Ulster hit back with two early tries to leave their hosts reeling.
Both scores were engineered by Humphreys, the first courtesy of a fine side-step that allowed the stand-off to release wing Nagusa, who combined well with Tuohy to send the supporting lock over.
Humphreys missed the tricky conversion but was soon helping his side rack up more points, after intercepting Jonny Vaughton's pass and sprinting upfield before finding Danielli - Humphreys also adding the extras.
We seemed to come off second-best at important break-downs, too many individual errors I think
Ospreys captain Ryan Jones
The Ospreys hit back with a stylish score, created by Andrew Bishop who broke through the heart of the Ulster defence.
Mike Phillips was immediately on the centre's inside shoulder and the final act was supplied by Walker, as the Scotland left wing appeared on the other flank to switch the angle of attack again.
Hook missed the conversion and two subsequent penalty attempts, during a period that saw Ulster lose try-scorer Tuohy to possible concussion after his attempted tackle on a charging Jerry Collins.
With Humphreys kicking a penalty it seemed as though Ulster would end the half with a handy 15-8 lead, despite losing full-back Clinton Schifcofske to the sin-bin for slapping the ball away.
But the Ospreys were gifted one last opportunity in the half, after a mix-up in communications between Humphreys and referee Alan Lewis.
Presumably believing time was up, the Ulster fly-half casually kicked the ball to the closest part of the touchline and thereby gifted the hosts an attacking line-out.
The Ospreys caught and drove powerfully over the try line, with prop Duncan Jones - on as a replacement for a bloodied Cai Griffiths - emerging grinning from the bottom of the pile.
However, Hook's poor kicking form continued as he hit the post with a conversion that would have sent the sides in level.
The fly-half did better with his first kick of the second half, his penalty returning the Ospreys to the lead - but the advantage did not last long.
Nagusa did excellently to free his arms as he was tackled, finding Ian Whitten who off-loaded to Danielli for the wing's second try, although this time it went unconverted.
That left the Ospreys needing an unconverted try to pinch it and they hammered away at the Ulster line.
But the brawn over brain approach of relying on the big men to punch holes only took the Ospreys so far.
The Welsh side were ultimately thwarted by Ulster bravery and no little cunning - with the ball often ripped from the attacker's grasp - and a swarm of tacklers when the ball did reach the backs.
Ospreys captain Ryan Jones: "We made too many mistakes, it's as simple as that, and take nothing away from Ulster they capitalised on them.
"They were deserved winners... we seemed to come off second-best at important break-downs, too many individual errors I think.
"Discipline a couple of times cost us dearly and we came off second-best in quite a few facets of the game.
"But we're still building, hopefully we won't lose again at home this season because it will be a stark wake-up call tomorrow morning."
Ospreys: Barry Davies; Jonny Vaughton, Sonny Parker, Andrew Bishop, Nikki Walker; James Hook, Mike Phillips; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Cai Griffiths, Ian Gough, Andy Lloyd, Jerry Collins, Marty Holah, Ryan Jones (capt). Replacements: Huw Bennett for Hibbard (49), Duncan Jones for Griffiths (57), Jonathan Thomas for Lloyd (49), Tom Smith for Collins (68), Jamie Nutbrown or M. Phillips (72), Dan Biggar for Vaughton (79), Tommy Bowe for Walker (53).
Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, D Cave, I Whitten, S Danielli; Ian Humphreys, I Boss; B Young, A Kyriacou, BJ Botha, E O'Donoghue, D Tuohy, C Henry (capt), W Faloon, R Diack. Replacements: N Brady for Kyriacou (71), D Fitzpatrick for Botha (57), T Horua for Diack (54), T Anderson for Tuohy (27), C Willis for Nagusa (57), N O'Connor, J Shiels.
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