In a dominant first-half showing, the South African province clinically ran in four tries in the first quarter.
A double from wing Kurt-Lee Arendse and scores from flanker Elrigh Louw and scrum-half Embrose Papier all but wrapped up a bonus point victory early on.
The well-oiled Ospreys driving maul allowed hooker Dewi Lake to finish a trademark move before the break, but it would be a tough night for Booth’s side.
Ill-discipline from the Bulls let the home side back into the match after the re-start. Firstly, going down to 14 men with David Kriel’s red card for leading with the forearm to the neck of Dan Edwards. Then Louw’s deliberate knock-on saw the Bulls down to 13, but chances would go begging as the Ospreys failed to capitalise on their numerical advantage.
Booth’s side, to their credit, plugged away and were rewarded with scores from Ryan Conbeer and Morgan Morris on his 100th appearance in between a further yellow for Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni.
Max Nagy and Jac Morgan came close late on to earning a try bonus point but in the end, the Ospreys would rue missed opportunities and finish empty-handed from the contest.
“It started off in the warm-up. Losing Iestyn [Hopkins] there and it didn’t get any better for 20/25 minutes,” said Booth in his post-match press conference.
“It’s no secret though if you play against the best that you are going to have to be at yours and be clinical.
“You need to be accurate. We weren’t against Muster or the Dragons, but we were against the Stormers.
“That is always the battle because there are people on the other side trying to stop you from doing that.
“For us, if we want to be the team that we want to be, we are going to need that accuracy. If you are not, then good teams will punish you and we were punished big style.
“I’m not someone to dress it up, we need to be better. You have to get yourself into the contest. With what we had we could have.
“Even the tries that we got we had to work exceptionally hard for. That is a testament to them.
“I’ll take nothing away from the Bulls because they are a good side and well-coached. They are a class outfit, but I think we will be disappointed when we look back on that.
“We have to move on now and what matters is what we do next.
“If we do want to fight it out with the big boys and punch above our weight like we have done so many times we will have to be accurate.
“The way it panned out with all the situations, I feel we should have got a bit more out of that contest than we did.”
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
