ULSTER HEAD COACH Richie Murphy could only admit that his side had significantly contributed to their own downfall after the 34-29 home loss to Edinburgh in the first round of the URC.
Though they did stage a dramatic fightback from being 34-5 down in the second half to collect two bonus points from a clash they might even have won, there was no hiding from the pain of this opening defeat.
“A huge amount of work has gone in through pre-season, and we didn’t see a lot of that.”
“That they (the supporters) only saw them (Ulster) for 15 minutes when it’s an 80-minute game is what probably hurts the most.
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“But we have to live with that and make sure we try and fix a few things before we go to Glasgow away next week,” he added.
Though Ulster expect to have more Ireland squad members available to them for this challenging looking short hop over to Scotstoun – only Robert Baloucoune and the benched Zac Ward featured on Friday evening following last summer’s Nations Championship – the need to dig out a result after losing to Edinburgh has already heaped the pressure on the province.
Murphy continued: “We were comfortable in the first half letting Edinburgh hold on to the ball.
“I think we were working off as little as 35% possession and territory. Edinburgh held the ball well and defensively we just stopped coming forward and if you don’t go forward and meet them, eventually they’re going to break you down and the try before half-time digs a bigger hole for you.”
“At half-time, we talked about the things that we needed to deliver in the second half, but our first 10 minutes were pretty poor again.”
As for the fightback begun by Ward’s 56th minute try, the head coach said: “I think you did see an element of 15-20 minutes (in the second half) of the type of rugby that we’ve been trying to work towards through pre-season with some good accuracy and some good collision work.
“We definitely gave ourselves an opportunity to win it. We just weren’t accurate enough.
“There will be plenty of questions, and rightfully so,” said Murphy, “We haven’t delivered, and that’s our issue, but we’re pretty confident in the group that we have.
“We’re missing 19 players at the moment, but that had no reflection of what happened. We should have been better.”
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'Massively disappointing' - Murphy and Ulster left reeling after first-round defeat
ULSTER HEAD COACH Richie Murphy could only admit that his side had significantly contributed to their own downfall after the 34-29 home loss to Edinburgh in the first round of the URC.
Though they did stage a dramatic fightback from being 34-5 down in the second half to collect two bonus points from a clash they might even have won, there was no hiding from the pain of this opening defeat.
“(It’s) massively disappointing,” Murphy admitted.
“A huge amount of work has gone in through pre-season, and we didn’t see a lot of that.”
“That they (the supporters) only saw them (Ulster) for 15 minutes when it’s an 80-minute game is what probably hurts the most.
“But we have to live with that and make sure we try and fix a few things before we go to Glasgow away next week,” he added.
Though Ulster expect to have more Ireland squad members available to them for this challenging looking short hop over to Scotstoun – only Robert Baloucoune and the benched Zac Ward featured on Friday evening following last summer’s Nations Championship – the need to dig out a result after losing to Edinburgh has already heaped the pressure on the province.
Murphy continued: “We were comfortable in the first half letting Edinburgh hold on to the ball.
“I think we were working off as little as 35% possession and territory. Edinburgh held the ball well and defensively we just stopped coming forward and if you don’t go forward and meet them, eventually they’re going to break you down and the try before half-time digs a bigger hole for you.”
“At half-time, we talked about the things that we needed to deliver in the second half, but our first 10 minutes were pretty poor again.”
As for the fightback begun by Ward’s 56th minute try, the head coach said: “I think you did see an element of 15-20 minutes (in the second half) of the type of rugby that we’ve been trying to work towards through pre-season with some good accuracy and some good collision work.
“We definitely gave ourselves an opportunity to win it. We just weren’t accurate enough.
“There will be plenty of questions, and rightfully so,” said Murphy, “We haven’t delivered, and that’s our issue, but we’re pretty confident in the group that we have.
“We’re missing 19 players at the moment, but that had no reflection of what happened. We should have been better.”
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