NEW ULSTER HEAD coach Neil Doak passed on praise for his first win in charge over Glasgow Warriors.
The northern province marked Doak’s promotion with a 29 – 9 win over the league leaders who had scored 21 tries and won all five games before arriving at Kingspan Stadium.
The credit for ‘negating’ the Scots’ attack, went to defence coach Jonny Bell as Ulster, a week after keeping Edinburgh off the scoresheet, kept Warriors at arm’s length throughout.
“We just tried to make sure that we didn’t give Glasgow the opportunity to keep the ball live. They had done that a few times and did cause a few problems, but credit to the D,” said Doak.
“We talked about working on both sides of the ball and we take pride – went on a bit of a run not conceding tries last year – that’s a credit to Dinger [Jonny Bell], a credit to the boys. We talked about it all week, making sure we stay connected in our systems and not give them an opportunity and it worked pretty well for us tonight.”
A major component of those systems was the presence of Ulster’s in-form centre Stuart McCloskey. Warriors coach Gregor Townsend remarked that Ulster’s midfield had been difficult to analyse because ‘they have three or four very good players who can play at 12′. At this stage, however, McCloskey is giving Doak no reason to look at anyone else.
“Stuarty’s come in and done a great job for us. He’s a big unit and he’s pretty physical in his carries and obviously he’s able to defensively get on top of a team, and on top of players.
“That’s a great credit to him, he’s not overawed by the atmosphere and the situation he’s come in and done a great job for us.”
And with Leicester Tigers welcoming Manu Tuilagi back into the fold on Friday night, that added midfield physicality could prove invaluable in Welford Road next week.
