IT’S BEEN an undeniably difficult first full season in charge at Ulster for Richie Murphy.
There is no play-off rugby attainable for the province in the URC with one round to go at top-eight chasing Edinburgh on Friday evening.
For the head coach and his squad, this week has been about digesting last Friday’s crunch defeat at Munster while also trying to get up for what will be their final game of the campaign.
“Obviously, we’re not where we want to be,” said Murphy off the back of three straight URC losses.
Ulster have won just seven league games all season, as they head towards round 18.
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“We wanted to be in the top eight (in the URC),” he added, “I’m not sure that we were ever going to be in the top four, but we thought we’d be able to get into the top eight. So, we’ve underachieved in that regard.
“There are a huge amount of circumstances that have gone into getting [Ulster] to where we are.
“In relation to turnover of players and player availability, but ultimately the games that we’ve been in; there are five games there and if we could have turned over two of those games early in the season, what kind of effect would that have had on the back end of the season?
“It could have been huge. Confidence from winning is huge and, unfortunately, we haven’t been able to build that this year.
Murphy continued: “I think from a rugby point of view, we’ve moved quite a long way forward. From a consistency point of view, we’re probably behind where we would want to be.
“Some of that is very hard to put your finger on what it is because if you look at games that we’ve won and lost, we’ve been as much as 17 points behind and won, but we’ve been 19 points ahead and lost.
“Ultimately, I suppose professional rugby is judged on results, so it’s a disappointing season.”
Murphy has called for Ulster to at least finish with something of substance to potentially improve on their current 12th place in the table.
“This week gives us an opportunity to make sure we sign off on a better note.
“So, this is an opportunity, and quite a few lads have been told that. Some lads are trying to get on an Irish tour, so we all need to perform for each other.”
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'We're not where we want to be' - Richie Murphy on difficult first season at Ulster
IT’S BEEN an undeniably difficult first full season in charge at Ulster for Richie Murphy.
There is no play-off rugby attainable for the province in the URC with one round to go at top-eight chasing Edinburgh on Friday evening.
For the head coach and his squad, this week has been about digesting last Friday’s crunch defeat at Munster while also trying to get up for what will be their final game of the campaign.
“Obviously, we’re not where we want to be,” said Murphy off the back of three straight URC losses.
Ulster have won just seven league games all season, as they head towards round 18.
“We wanted to be in the top eight (in the URC),” he added, “I’m not sure that we were ever going to be in the top four, but we thought we’d be able to get into the top eight. So, we’ve underachieved in that regard.
“There are a huge amount of circumstances that have gone into getting [Ulster] to where we are.
“In relation to turnover of players and player availability, but ultimately the games that we’ve been in; there are five games there and if we could have turned over two of those games early in the season, what kind of effect would that have had on the back end of the season?
“It could have been huge. Confidence from winning is huge and, unfortunately, we haven’t been able to build that this year.
Murphy continued: “I think from a rugby point of view, we’ve moved quite a long way forward. From a consistency point of view, we’re probably behind where we would want to be.
“Some of that is very hard to put your finger on what it is because if you look at games that we’ve won and lost, we’ve been as much as 17 points behind and won, but we’ve been 19 points ahead and lost.
“Ultimately, I suppose professional rugby is judged on results, so it’s a disappointing season.”
Murphy has called for Ulster to at least finish with something of substance to potentially improve on their current 12th place in the table.
“This week gives us an opportunity to make sure we sign off on a better note.
“So, this is an opportunity, and quite a few lads have been told that. Some lads are trying to get on an Irish tour, so we all need to perform for each other.”
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