But, had they not spurned kickable penalties in a quest for tries on a night when every point was always going to count, their merited advantage would have been more pronounced for next week's return.
Morgan added the conversion to increase the champions' lead to 16-12 werewere down to 14 men at the time of their try after after Morgan Allen had been sin-binned moments earlier.. Ulster responded with some immediate pressure but the Ospreys produced some heroic defending deep in their own 22 and then controlled the final 10 minutes of play to secure their merited victory.
Recall the drama of their win against Austria, their well-merited success over England and even their second half show of strength against the French (even when the result was beyond recovery).
Yet in their two-hour show for audiences of all ages, these performers aren't resting on their well-merited laurels.
Then there are the Edinburgh favourites, still bubbling under, waiting for their well-merited big break – like my 2011 favourites, the sister double act Toby, who're back this year; or Nick Mohammed, in the guise of his camp, nerdy alter ego Mr Swallow.
This thoroughly merited victory, their third on the trot after a narrow defeat in their opening match at Hull Kingston Rovers, was particularly sweet for John Kear, Trinity's coach, who was sacked by Hull last April, seven months and only 13 matches after leading them to a first Challenge Cup victory in 23 years.
In truth, and as Hiddink later suggested, Watford had merited reward from their trip to west London even if a glance at the league table made their celebrations of a draw feel rather incongruous.
Johnson made the point that Ford had the potential to become as influential as Wilkinson was but he did not think the two merited comparison because their styles were so different.
In they filed: foreigners for whom soccer is lifeblood; American tourists for whom the game merited diversion from their sightseeing itineraries; and New Yorkers looking for a couple of hours off from work, a few morning beers in plastic cups and a chance to watch our boys play Slovenia.
Their recent wins over Australia were thoroughly merited and they should have too many guns for England on home soil.
Zimbabwe's Peter Ndlovu, Egypt's Tarek Said and Ali Ibrahim, Burkina Faso's Abdoulaye Soulama, and Rwanda's Olivier Karekezi all merited consideration, but - like their respective teams - didn't quite do enough.
