ULSTER COACH Richie Murphy admitted that the shock 15-14 home defeat to Zebre was bitterly disappointing and has done damage to their season.
Trailing 15-0 in the second half at a weather-blasted Belfast, Ulster left themselves with too much to do as Zebre deservedly won for the first time at the Kingspan Stadium.
“It’s very disappointing and we’ll have to move on now … it puts a dint in our season,” said Murphy.
“Yes, I’m massively disappointed, when these things happen you look at the week and how we prepared, did we do due diligence, and have we prepared the boys right?
“We run into a break now and it’s never nice after a loss.”
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He continued: “We turned up feeling we were in a really good place ready to go, early in the game we talked about trying to apply pressure through field position but didn’t do that well enough.
“Fair play to Zebre they deserved their win.”
And alluding to trailing 15-0 in the game he said: “Put yourself in those positions and ultimately, you’re going to fall short.
“We need to find out why we were so far off at the start of the game and I suppose emotionally were we ready for the challenge that was coming at us, we felt that we were but when you see how we played we were well short of where we needed to be.”
Murphy also had a message for the Ulster supporters and while thanking them for turning out and sticking by the team he also apologised for the performance and shock defeat.
“I’m sorry that our performance didn’t match their (the supporters) enthusiasm for the team,” he said.
“We are working really hard sometimes they might look and say: ‘what is going on?’ but there is a huge amount of time and effort from everybody and we have to find a way to be more consistent in our performance.
“15-0 down and halfway through the second half and we tried to empty the bench to give us some energy and impetus.
“We started off and our scrum was under pressure, a couple of breakdowns and we needed to move the ball and get into our flow.
“We had talked about trying to pin Zebre back in their 22 but we didn’t do that.
“When you have a performance like that it was like Cardiff all over again maybe that’s something, last game in the block but ultimately the lads won’t enjoy their break,” said Murphy.
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Murphy bitterly disappointed after Ulster's shock defeat to Zebre
ULSTER COACH Richie Murphy admitted that the shock 15-14 home defeat to Zebre was bitterly disappointing and has done damage to their season.
Trailing 15-0 in the second half at a weather-blasted Belfast, Ulster left themselves with too much to do as Zebre deservedly won for the first time at the Kingspan Stadium.
“It’s very disappointing and we’ll have to move on now … it puts a dint in our season,” said Murphy.
“Yes, I’m massively disappointed, when these things happen you look at the week and how we prepared, did we do due diligence, and have we prepared the boys right?
“We run into a break now and it’s never nice after a loss.”
He continued: “We turned up feeling we were in a really good place ready to go, early in the game we talked about trying to apply pressure through field position but didn’t do that well enough.
“Fair play to Zebre they deserved their win.”
And alluding to trailing 15-0 in the game he said: “Put yourself in those positions and ultimately, you’re going to fall short.
“We need to find out why we were so far off at the start of the game and I suppose emotionally were we ready for the challenge that was coming at us, we felt that we were but when you see how we played we were well short of where we needed to be.”
Murphy also had a message for the Ulster supporters and while thanking them for turning out and sticking by the team he also apologised for the performance and shock defeat.
“I’m sorry that our performance didn’t match their (the supporters) enthusiasm for the team,” he said.
“We are working really hard sometimes they might look and say: ‘what is going on?’ but there is a huge amount of time and effort from everybody and we have to find a way to be more consistent in our performance.
“15-0 down and halfway through the second half and we tried to empty the bench to give us some energy and impetus.
“We started off and our scrum was under pressure, a couple of breakdowns and we needed to move the ball and get into our flow.
“We had talked about trying to pin Zebre back in their 22 but we didn’t do that.
“When you have a performance like that it was like Cardiff all over again maybe that’s something, last game in the block but ultimately the lads won’t enjoy their break,” said Murphy.
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DISAPPOINTED richie murphy Rugby shock loss Zebre Ulster Unimpressed