WITH LAST WEEKEND’S results doing Ulster damage, head coach Richie Murphy has admitted that the pressure is on the province to keep their URC play-off hopes in a healthy state as a rotated squad travel to Munster this weekend.
Thanks to the 29-21 home defeat to Leinster plus outcomes elsewhere Ulster have slipped to fifth in the log, a mere place and point above Munster and only three points better off than Connacht who sit outside the play-off zone in ninth.
With a raft of injuries to key players to contend with – Angus Bell, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Scott Wilson, James Hume, Nick Timoney, Bryn Ward and Jude Postlethwaite are all sidelined – while Ulster also bid to keep battling on two fronts with a home Challenge Cup semi-final with Exeter Chiefs up next week, Murphy currently has a lot to contend with.
“We can only try and accumulate as many points as we can,” he said when addressing the situation in the URC with, including this weekend’s trip to Limerick, three rounds of regulation season games to go.
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“We’ve done that really well up until the last while. Our start was obviously really strong and now we’re in a situation where we’re battling on two fronts.”
Angus Bell was injured during the defeat to Leinster. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
Alluding to the need to rotate his squad for the Munster trip he added: “We’ve got a run of 10 games; we have to try and make do and pick the right squad for those particular games.
“(So) We’re under pressure at the moment.
“Our team selection this week will represent what we feel is the right team to play against Munster in Limerick.
“We’re six games in, we’re in back-to-back games and we’re in a 10-week block, no matter what, with possibly at least another two games on the end of it.
“So, even with that in mind, from a player welfare point of view, you have to make sure that players aren’t allowed to play 10 weeks in a row. That can’t happen, so, with that in mind, there will be some rotation.”
How Ulster now manage this period is crucial.
“If you had said to us at the start of the year that with three games to go we had a chance of making top four or top eight (in the URC), and we had a semi-final to Europe, would we have been happy? We would have bitten your hand off.
“(But) It’s really important now that we finish it out, whatever obstacles come in our way,” Murphy added.
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'We're under pressure at the moment' - Injury-hit Ulster face testing Munster trip
WITH LAST WEEKEND’S results doing Ulster damage, head coach Richie Murphy has admitted that the pressure is on the province to keep their URC play-off hopes in a healthy state as a rotated squad travel to Munster this weekend.
Thanks to the 29-21 home defeat to Leinster plus outcomes elsewhere Ulster have slipped to fifth in the log, a mere place and point above Munster and only three points better off than Connacht who sit outside the play-off zone in ninth.
With a raft of injuries to key players to contend with – Angus Bell, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Scott Wilson, James Hume, Nick Timoney, Bryn Ward and Jude Postlethwaite are all sidelined – while Ulster also bid to keep battling on two fronts with a home Challenge Cup semi-final with Exeter Chiefs up next week, Murphy currently has a lot to contend with.
“We can only try and accumulate as many points as we can,” he said when addressing the situation in the URC with, including this weekend’s trip to Limerick, three rounds of regulation season games to go.
“We’ve done that really well up until the last while. Our start was obviously really strong and now we’re in a situation where we’re battling on two fronts.”
Alluding to the need to rotate his squad for the Munster trip he added: “We’ve got a run of 10 games; we have to try and make do and pick the right squad for those particular games.
“(So) We’re under pressure at the moment.
“Our team selection this week will represent what we feel is the right team to play against Munster in Limerick.
“We’re six games in, we’re in back-to-back games and we’re in a 10-week block, no matter what, with possibly at least another two games on the end of it.
“So, even with that in mind, from a player welfare point of view, you have to make sure that players aren’t allowed to play 10 weeks in a row. That can’t happen, so, with that in mind, there will be some rotation.”
How Ulster now manage this period is crucial.
“If you had said to us at the start of the year that with three games to go we had a chance of making top four or top eight (in the URC), and we had a semi-final to Europe, would we have been happy? We would have bitten your hand off.
“(But) It’s really important now that we finish it out, whatever obstacles come in our way,” Murphy added.
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Playoff race richie murphy Rugby Ulster URC