The league leaders ensured the title race was narrowed to a three-horse race by disposing of fourth-placed Celtic Warriors with relative ease.

Ulster's away form had threatened to undermine their title push following recent defeats at Glasgow and Newport, but 18 points from David Humphreys, including one of his side's three tries and an impenetrable defence kept their progress on track.

Alan Solomons had made five changes from the side that beat Munster last week with Test trio Humphreys, Simon Best and Neil Doak all back in domestic action as Gary Longwell would have had he not suffered a dead leg training with Ireland.

Ulster's second-row problems worsened early on at Bridgend when Matt Mustchin broke his wrist, particularly with Wales' Robert Sidoli back for the Warriors, though the injury did nothing to knock them off their stride as they cantered into an 18-0 lead with surprising ease.

Indeed there was an 'unnatural' feel about the early stages of a sodden game with Neil Jenkins, who recently set an as yet unofficial world record of 44 consecutive kicks, had the crowd rubbing their eyes in disbelief after missing his first two attempts while Ulster hardly broke into a sweat as they racked up their points.

Shane Stewart got the scoreboard moving by executing the simplest of moves with precision by cutting onto former All Black centre Paul Steinmetz's flat pass with an acute angle that split the Warriors defence to score after 15 minutes.

Humphreys converted and soon added two further penalties before Ulster strolled over for a second within half an hour when flanker Neil McMillan went over in the corner as the Warriors ran out of defenders.

The Ulster outside-half then proceeded to take total control as the game become bogged down in the second half mud, though he was allowed to conduct events amid a rock-solid defence that soaked up a blunted Warriors attack missing several key figures.

It was that defence that provided the bedrock for Ulster's third try following a Rod Moore turn over in midfield after repelling several phases. Possession was spun wide to launch the counter-attack and when Andy Ward was hauled down, Steinmetz flicked the ball along the ground to the unmarked Humphreys who strolled over to wrap up an extremely satisfactory night's work.