“EXPECTATION IS DANGEROUS.”
Those were the words of Ulster coach Mark Anscombe when he was asked if missing out on a try-scoring bonus point against Montpellier on Friday night should be seen as a failure for his province.
The New Zealand native didn’t think so. His view was that many supporters and journalists had lacked respect for Fabien Galthié’s side in their pre-match discussions by suggesting that Ulster would power to a five-point win.
“Once you start winning and doing alright, everyone’s expectation gets bigger and bigger. The fact is that people spoke, talked, wrote about us winning the bonus point, so Montpellier have come here with that mindset.
If you look at the history of how they’ve gone in this [the Heineken Cup], I understand that, but the fact is that teams don’t come to do that anymore. They’ve got some big men. They were never going to come down, lay down and make fools of themselves.
“Just like we wouldn’t in the same position.”
Even still, the bonus point came exasperatingly close to Ulster’s desperate reach in the second half, with several promising chances not taken. Despite that, Anscombe insists his side are in an excellent position in Pool 5.
“We had a couple of times. Michael Allen nearly went over, Trimby [Andrew Trimble] and Gilly [Craig Gilroy] had a squabble over the ball and Ruan got held up. So we created a few, but didn’t quite get there. Like I said before the game, if I got four points I’d take it.
“We’ve said it right through the competition; if you’ve got six fours, you qualify and we’re on track. At the end of the day, I think a lot of people just started expecting the bonus point. That’s not showing enough respect for Montpellier, big men and still some good footballers.”
One area of Ulster’s performance that disappointed Anscombe was their discipline in defence. 10 penalties conceded is by no means a record, but the fact that many of them came inside Ulster’s half allowed Eric Escande to kick three penalties, keeping Montpellier within touching distance.
Anscombe admits Ulster will need to improve in that regard for the visit to Leicester next weekend.
Our discipline is hurting us a little bit. It’s the lazy penalties; entry from the side, not rolling away. That just allows teams to put us back in the corner and keep them in the game, accumulate the points. They’ve got a top-class goal kicker, he’s hit the ball well.
“We know next week, they’ll [Leicester] be more than happy to take three points. So we’ve just got to make sure our discipline is a little sharper and we take our game to play with confidence. But as I said to the guys after the game, it’s very easy in this game to week-after-week beat yourself up about performance.
“You’ve still got to remember in this competition, you’re playing quality teams that have to qualify to be in it. If you’re not satisfied with that, then you’re never going to be satisfied too much.”
