ULSTER DIRECTOR OF Rugby Les Kiss has said he’s happy to head into Christmas with a 23-7 win over Connacht at the Kingspan Stadium, but says that his side still need to improve.
Ulster controlled proceedings in the interpro clash in Belfast but failed to capitalise on key moments and could have won by a more comfortable margin against an understrength Connacht side.
A try for Stuart McCloskey on his 50th Ulster appearance, and a first Ulster try for Clive Ross gave Kiss’s charges the win that lifts them back into the top four of the Guinness Pro12.
But the Australian coach says he knows there are ways his side can improve heading into a second all-Irish meeting with Leinster at the RDS Arena on New Year’s Eve.
“It’s nice to go into Christmas in that way,” Kiss said after the game. “There’s parts of our game that we’re just not as consistent as we’d like to be, but I can’t fault the guys for digging in out in those conditions.
“We were the architects of being on the back foot a few times and not finishing them off at times because we made too many errors.
“(Ruan Pienaar) gets held up but if he passes, Lukey (Marshall) maybe goes over, Treaders (Kieran Treadwell) picks in the corner and is stopped. Little things like that where we can be better.
“We just knew tonight it was important to get the win and we got it.”
It was a much improved display from the one that we saw in Clermont last weekend with Ulster looking more assured in attack and a lot less open in defence.
Kiss admitted they’d changed things around in midweek, albeit with a short turnaround from Sunday’s defeat, and that it had paid off in the end.
“I thought tonight (the way) we put our game together suited the boys, we were very disciplined,” Kiss reflected.
“To win that game with a game in hand is very important for us. Now we go to Christmas and then we prepare for Leinster who are going to be super strong.”
While Ulster’s record against Leinster in Dublin not brilliant, Kiss is aware that only a perfect performance will do at the RDS Arena.
In a performance where Ulster were constantly frustrated by their opponents at the breakdown, and were turned over in several key areas of the pitch, that was one of the places Kiss singled out they could improve.
“I don’t think we can allow the breakdown to be bullied, there was improvement there but we need to be better at every ruck because Leinster are beasts around the ball,” Kiss reflected.
“I still think our defence could be better despite what we put together there, we put pressure on them and they didn’t handle it well but I still think we could improve.”
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