RICHIE MURPHY WAS delighted as Ulster booked their place in the European Challenge Cup by outscoring the Exeter Chiefs by four tries to two in a 29-12 victory at Ravenhill.

The northern province are now just 80 minutes away from ending their 20-year wait for silverware.

“Feels brilliant, lovely to book ourselves in the final, a couple of weeks’ time we’ll be able to sit back and prepare for that, it’s like anything isn’t it? when you’re in a final you want to win, so trying to build a plan around how we do that in two weeks’ time, or in three weeks’ time, will be huge,” enthused Murphy.

The head coach thought the difference between the two teams was Ulster’s clinical edge.

“I thought we stuck in the fight really well, when they put us under a little bit of pressure we stayed in the fight really well, which was really satisfying.

“Got a couple of big turnovers inside our own 22, and likewise when we went down the other end, especially in the second half, we were super clinical.”

“I thought our ability to stay true to who we are as a rugby team was class, I think we played the type of rugby that we have been playing all year, when we’ve had the dry ball, and I thought our set-piece was really good, I thought our scrum held up really, really well, line-out, line-out maul.

“Huge credit to Jimmy Duffy, huge credit to William Falloon in relation to our defence, and Mark (Sexton) around our attack.

“Dan Soper is always in the middle of that, working on our transition play, so from my point of view, as a team behind a team, the coaching effort was huge, and the lads out on the pitch I thought were immense, every one of them, all 23 that ended up out on the pitch, they completely gave everything that they had to make sure that we got to a final.”

The victory came at a price with Ireland international Jacob Stockdale and Stuart McCloskey both picking up knocks.

“It’s hard to know exactly where they’re at, Jacob got a head knock, and was taken off at half-time because of it.

“Stu McCloskey kicked the ball, felt his hamstring, could be a cramp, could be a hamstring, we’re not quite sure at the moment, at this stage it’s too early to tell. Jude had a calf cramp, he came off, Jack (Murphy) came off with a cramp, changed him for Jake, I think that was it.

“I think Dave McCann came off towards the end of the game as well, so when we actually finished the game with 13 players, Jude was off and Dave McCann was off, so the lads were still fighting for everything that they could get.”

Murphy paid tribute to the Ulster fans as Ravenhill hosted it’s first European semi-final since 1999.

“Incredible, incredible night, the fans here at Ravenhill have always got in behind the guys, and we’ve given them something to cheer about, and they were brilliant tonight.

“A big turnout, and I think they enjoyed themselves, I don’t know what I mean by the looks of them anyway, and the amount of fans that stayed on after the game to see the lads, so, look, nice to give them something to go after, hopefully we’ll get a few of them to Bilbao.”