A BUMP IN the road rather than anything more damaging is how Richie Murphy saw Ulster’s near miss against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

Prior to Friday night’s interpro, Murphy’s side had picked up four wins against just one defeat in what has been a very encouraging start to their URC campaign.

They were building towards a fifth victory in Dublin until Leinster sent on some of their big guns in the third quarter and the wheels came off for the visitors, who had a 10-point lead wiped out. They headed home to Belfast with a solitary point for their troubles.

Murphy was asked if he now had to make sure the Ulster dressing room isn’t deflated by the outcome. “I don’t know what people expect, because a lot of people are saying that to us, but we’ll learn from this experience,” came the reply.

“Again, you look at the young guys that are coming onto the pitch, the young guys that are starting, Charlie Irvine, massive game for him, Joe Hopes coming on, Bryn Ward, 21 years of age, all of them.

Those guys will learn from this experience and we’ll get better. That’s what we’ve tasked at the start of the season, is that we improve every week. So it definitely won’t deflate us.

“It definitely won’t knock us off track. We just need to regroup, learn from the mistakes that were in this game and just try and prepare the best we can for Connacht.”

Murphy pointed to the quality of performance from his side in the first half but lamented a couple of attacking opportunities that went awry in the second.

“We went away a little bit from what we were doing in the first half and we didn’t look after the ball well enough in that second half,” he said.

Leinster's players celebrate at the final whistle. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

Nevertheless, it was Leinster’s all-star bench that turned the tide in the title holders’ favour, once again highlighting the depth in Leo Cullen’s operation compared to the other provinces.

“There’s no doubt that their bench has a massive impact in the back end of the game,” Murphy acknowledged.

“And from an experience and point of view, we’re at very different levels of players coming onto the pitch.

“You know, Joe Hopes has two caps and he comes on against Joe McCarthy, who’s the Irish international.

“So that’s where we’re at. What we’ve said at the start of the year, and we talk about it every week, is what do we take out of this week and move on.

A couple of opportunities, as I said, that we didn’t get quite right in the game, I think has a massive impact on how the game finishes out.

“Leinster squares us a little bit in and around the line out, and then just their power game was hard to stop. So it’s really important from our point of view that we get our defensive line coming forward to try and meet that.

But as that blue wave comes at you, it’s difficult.

“I think you guys probably read into the derby stuff much more than the actual teams themselves.

“We prepare every week to play the opposition, no matter whether they’re from Ireland or wherever they’re from, and we look at strengths and weaknesses in teams the same way.

Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“I suppose the one big thing about it is trying to have a better performance than your opposite number and I thought some of our lads really stood up.

“I thought Tom Stewart was exceptional throughout the game as well but he definitely wasn’t on his own.

“So we’re in a position where we’re improving all the time. Yes, we’re disappointed with the loss, but winning in the Aviva against Leinster is always a difficult sort of thing to do anyway.”

Cormac Izuchukwu and James Hume were unavailable due to sickness but could come into the picture for the Connacht game.

“A lot of sickness going around, I think, in every rugby squad at the moment,” Murphy commented.

“Cormac Izuchukwu and James Hume both haven’t been in since Monday. Yeah, both fit; well, both getting over sickness, but should be back available.”