THE SEASON IS well and truly under way now.
The Lions have returned, early-season blips have been counter-balanced and the Heineken Cup is just 13 days away.
A good thing for Ulster then, that last night’s bonus-point win over Treviso steepened their upward curve after falling to the Dragons and Warriors in weeks one and two.
The trip to Wales was a complete systems failure, but at home to Glasgow (who now top the league with four wins from four) the blame was shouldered by Luke Marshall and Michael Allen after both dropped passes while bearing down on the try-line.
Last night, Allen crossed twice and Marshall held on tight as Jared Payne popped an offload his way. The slate has been wiped clean with tries.
“It’s just about creating momentum going into the Heineken,” Marshall said post-match.
“We played quite well in phases in the first couple of games, but we didn’t get the results. We’re starting to get results and finish off a few tries now. We’ve still a lot of work to do – we coughed up a bit of ball in our own half and given them more opportunities tonight than we should have – but we’re going in the right direction.”
As Marshall spoke, his head coach Mark Anscombe was sitting alongside him and the Kiwi had to check his stride after immediately moving past the five-point job well done:
“We know what we’ve got coming up,” Anscombe said pondering trips to face Ospreys and Montpellier either side of a visit from Leicester Tigers.
“We’ve got a tough three or four weeks in front of us and we’ve got to keep working as hard as we can.
Formidable
“We may not have always been getting the returns but the boys have trained well. We’ve just got to keep at that, keep our feet on the ground and we know if we bring the right attitude and preparation for games then we can test most.
“Ospreys are going to be formidable opposition next week – five Lions and a host of Welsh internationals – but we’ll enjoy tonight first and we’ll look at Ospreys when we come in next week.”
Tomorrow morning’s video review will be the most comfortable of the season so far.
