STUART LANCASTER WAS clearly delighted after Connacht became the first team to beat Ulster in Belfast this season and praised his side’s efforts.
Connacht outscored their hosts by four tries to three in a 26-19 bonus point victory and thoroughly deserved their victory.
“Obviously, it’s a great win for us,” said Lancaster.
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“I felt if you replay the last few games, the Zebre bonus point, the Glasgow win on the last play, against Scarlets getting a bonus point, we’ve been making progress.”
“I know we’ve had those near victories and then last-gasp defeats, and you’re thinking, ‘Are we ever going to break the glass ceiling?’”
Lancaster continued: “Rugby’s such a weird game sometimes that it’s never an upward curve, so we’ve still got to keep our feet on the ground but certainly the last four games and this game in particular, you know it is a huge win for us.”
“It is a huge win for us to come to such a difficult place and a team that’s playing so well, that hasn’t lost at home for such a long time, and also, we’ve lost 10 Inter pros in a row so you put all that together, it’s been a great win.”
In terms of what made the difference in defeating Ulster, Lancaster added: “I think obviously we’ve worked hard on our defence.”
“We do a lot of work on our defence, and we needed to because of the way that Ulster have constructed their attack, they’ve got really good running lines, they’ve got good pace, tremendous ball carriers, and they work hard off the ball so they can get you on the edges.
“And even though we defended flat out most of the time we still conceded as well, so it shows how good Ulster are and how hard we had to work to keep the scoreline as it was.
“On the flip side, once you’ve defended, you’ve then got to attack with the same intensity and accuracy which we did.”
Finn Treacy scored twice while Sean Jansen and Finlay Bealham also crossed for tries for the western province.
“I thought our four tries were all really well-constructed, lots of good work off the ball, lots of good skill.”
“If anything, in the first 20 minutes, and a few balls down gave Ulster more possession than probably we wanted and (we had) some set-piece issues, but second half, I thought we really, really played well.”
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'You're thinking, ‘Are we ever going to break the glass ceiling?': Lancaster delights in Ulster win
STUART LANCASTER WAS clearly delighted after Connacht became the first team to beat Ulster in Belfast this season and praised his side’s efforts.
Connacht outscored their hosts by four tries to three in a 26-19 bonus point victory and thoroughly deserved their victory.
“Obviously, it’s a great win for us,” said Lancaster.
“I felt if you replay the last few games, the Zebre bonus point, the Glasgow win on the last play, against Scarlets getting a bonus point, we’ve been making progress.”
Lancaster continued: “Rugby’s such a weird game sometimes that it’s never an upward curve, so we’ve still got to keep our feet on the ground but certainly the last four games and this game in particular, you know it is a huge win for us.”
“It is a huge win for us to come to such a difficult place and a team that’s playing so well, that hasn’t lost at home for such a long time, and also, we’ve lost 10 Inter pros in a row so you put all that together, it’s been a great win.”
In terms of what made the difference in defeating Ulster, Lancaster added: “I think obviously we’ve worked hard on our defence.”
“We do a lot of work on our defence, and we needed to because of the way that Ulster have constructed their attack, they’ve got really good running lines, they’ve got good pace, tremendous ball carriers, and they work hard off the ball so they can get you on the edges.
“And even though we defended flat out most of the time we still conceded as well, so it shows how good Ulster are and how hard we had to work to keep the scoreline as it was.
Finn Treacy scored twice while Sean Jansen and Finlay Bealham also crossed for tries for the western province.
“I thought our four tries were all really well-constructed, lots of good work off the ball, lots of good skill.”
“If anything, in the first 20 minutes, and a few balls down gave Ulster more possession than probably we wanted and (we had) some set-piece issues, but second half, I thought we really, really played well.”
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