Ospreys can still wing in

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Williams, the former Wales forward at Ulster Rugby's coaching helm, saw his side swamped by seven Ospreys tries at the Liberty Stadium as they were sent crashing to a third defeat to leave them pegged to the foot of the Pool.

Now Williams has to lift his side for the reverse fixture at Ravenhill on Friday night but believes that the real group decider will come in Round 5 when Gloucester make the short trip to South Wales.

"The Ospreys have got the squad that can go ahead and win it," said Williams. "There are others - four or five real contenders - who are operating at a different level and the Ospreys are certainly one of those.

"The Ospreys and Gloucester have two impressive squads and it could all come down to tries and bonus points.

"Gloucester and the Ospreys are similar sides and have players across the park who can score tries at the drop of a hat. It is going to be a great game when they meet at the Liberty and it will come down to a few key moments to settle the outcome.

"It was not the sort of home coming I would have wished for and it was very disappointing. We got outgunned and they were a lot faster in thought and deed.

"The only way out of this for us is through hard work though there are a lot of faults with our game and we have got to plug away and try to fix them.

"These are difficult times for Ulster and situations like this don't get fixed overnight.

"We have got to dust ourselves down before next week. We couldn't live with them once the game became unstructured and their broken field runners got going.

"We need to take stock for a couple of days and learn the lessons of this defeat. That performance from the Ospreys wasn't a fluke. We have to learn from defeat and come again but I don't think you could question the commitment of the players, we were simply overpowered at times."