ULSTER COACH MARK Anscombe had a wry smile in the wake of Ulster’s 47-17 victory over Llanelli Scarlets at Ravenhill last night.
It was a sadistic sort of grin, the look of a man ready to rain on a parade.
Ulster had just turned on the after-burners, scoring five second half tries to blow away the Welsh outfit who had started the night in second place.
The Kiwi coach, having fired up his team with some strong words at half time, remained unhappy that the score hadn’t stayed 47-10 and didn’t use the word “soft” sparingly in the post-match assessment of his team.
“No.” He responded firmly to BBC sport when asked if that was the best 40 minutes his side had produced this season.
“There were some good aspects and some good tries. Overall, there are still areas we’ve got to be a lot better at.
‘Lazy, soft’
“It’s disappointing. It’s a good win and we’re really happy with the win and getting the bonus point against them, because you don’t do that often against Scarlets, but that’s a lazy, soft try we gave them at the end.
“Those little things just put a dampener on it. Maybe I shouldn’t be like that, maybe I should be enjoying the win, but that was soft.
“Some of our defence at different stages was soft today. Glasgow next week is going to be tough and we can’t afford to do that against them.”
Ulster will go into next Friday’s home encounter with Glasgow Warriors as the top team in Pool 4 of the Heineken Cup. At this stage, anything other than a home quarter final will be a failure. Unlike the Scots, they have plenty to lose.
©INPHO/Presseye/Darren Kidd
Anscombe reported early concern over injuries suffered by Dan Tuohy (calf) and Luke Marshall (finger) and both are expected to miss out on the European double-header. Better news is to come in the shape of Rory Best and Jared Payne.
Yet the personnel doesn’t bother Anscombe, it was the processes that irked him.
We know we’ve two tough games and our set-piece is going to have to keep growing , as it is we’re happy with that, but our breakdown work was pretty shabby and Glasgow are pretty good in that area. If we don’t get that sorted out we’ll be in trouble.”
He added, “I just thought we were flat that first half, there was no energy, we weren’t accurate, we were poor at the breakdown and we couldn’t build any pressure if we were going to be turning it over every time we took it into contact.
“There’s a few things there; some guys have had a week off and some have been at international camp and sometimes it takes them a bit longer than hoped to get back in and running again. I just thought it was a very flat first half.”
The curious thing about Ulster is, they haven’t strung a complete 80 minute display together this season. And yet, there they stand, leading the league by 11 points.
Against Glasgow, at home on a Friday night, another game of fits and starts may be enough to get all five points. Just don’t expect the coach to be happy about it.
