ULSTER COACH RICHIE Murphy remained upbeat even though his inexperienced and fully rotated side lost heavily at Munster, the home team pulling away strongly in the second half.
“In fairness to Munster in the second half, when they smelled blood, I thought they looked after the ball a hell of a lot better,” he said.
“They were a bit more clinical in the second half, and then the pace of play made it very difficult for us to get our foothold back into the game.
“There were parts of our game that we were a little bit green in,” he added of two occasions when Ulster, who also ended up crossing Munster’s line twice, failed to get touchdowns in the opening half when they were clearly on top.
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“I suppose James McKillop gets to the goal line and gets pulled over the line, and maybe (if he is) a little bit more streetwise, he’s able to stay this side of the line and let us go into that goal line attack.
“Then obviously Ben Carson gets pushed over the line by our lads but gets held up.
“One more of those scores might have made it very interesting.
“From our point of view, I thought we played with speed, we played with good accuracy, our handling was really good in that early part of the game.
“I felt the yellow for Tom Brigg was tough,” he added, “but that’s the way it goes.”
With the focus shifting towards next weekend’s European Challenge Cup semi-final when Ulster host Exeter Chiefs in Belfast, Murphy said: “Exeter are a very strong side, they have quality throughout their team, so we’re going to have to be at our very best.
“(But) then when we get past that, we get the Stormers, and then we get Glasgow (in the URC). It’s an incredibly tough run,” Murphy said as Ulster also battle to stay in the race to make the top eight of the URC.
“(But) would we want to be here at the start of the season? Absolutely. All focus will just go into trying to win (on Saturday against Exeter).”
In terms of the injuries Ulster picked up against Leinster, Murphy was far more optimistic about some of Nick Timoney, Rob Herring, Angus Bell, Tom O’Toole, James Hume, Jude Postlethwaite and Bryn Ward making it for the knockout tie.
“It’ll go down to the wire, it’ll be tight, but we’re definitely looking a little bit healthier than we were after last week’s game,” he said.
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Richie Murphy remains upbeat after inexperienced Ulster well beaten
ULSTER COACH RICHIE Murphy remained upbeat even though his inexperienced and fully rotated side lost heavily at Munster, the home team pulling away strongly in the second half.
“In fairness to Munster in the second half, when they smelled blood, I thought they looked after the ball a hell of a lot better,” he said.
“They were a bit more clinical in the second half, and then the pace of play made it very difficult for us to get our foothold back into the game.
“There were parts of our game that we were a little bit green in,” he added of two occasions when Ulster, who also ended up crossing Munster’s line twice, failed to get touchdowns in the opening half when they were clearly on top.
“I suppose James McKillop gets to the goal line and gets pulled over the line, and maybe (if he is) a little bit more streetwise, he’s able to stay this side of the line and let us go into that goal line attack.
“Then obviously Ben Carson gets pushed over the line by our lads but gets held up.
“One more of those scores might have made it very interesting.
“From our point of view, I thought we played with speed, we played with good accuracy, our handling was really good in that early part of the game.
“I felt the yellow for Tom Brigg was tough,” he added, “but that’s the way it goes.”
With the focus shifting towards next weekend’s European Challenge Cup semi-final when Ulster host Exeter Chiefs in Belfast, Murphy said: “Exeter are a very strong side, they have quality throughout their team, so we’re going to have to be at our very best.
“(But) then when we get past that, we get the Stormers, and then we get Glasgow (in the URC). It’s an incredibly tough run,” Murphy said as Ulster also battle to stay in the race to make the top eight of the URC.
“(But) would we want to be here at the start of the season? Absolutely. All focus will just go into trying to win (on Saturday against Exeter).”
In terms of the injuries Ulster picked up against Leinster, Murphy was far more optimistic about some of Nick Timoney, Rob Herring, Angus Bell, Tom O’Toole, James Hume, Jude Postlethwaite and Bryn Ward making it for the knockout tie.
“It’ll go down to the wire, it’ll be tight, but we’re definitely looking a little bit healthier than we were after last week’s game,” he said.
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