A SUPER-CHARGED SECOND half performance allowed Ulster stretch away to put nearly 50 points on Benetton to ensure the province returned from the five-week break in a way which clearly pleased head coach Richie Murphy.
Though they had fallen behind with the last action of the opening half, Jacob Umaga’s long range penalty putting the visitors 13-12 in front, Ulster who had Jude Postlethwaite looking particularly sharp throughout, racked up 35 unanswered points in what remained.
In all, Ulster scored seven tries, five, including their penalty try, arriving in the second 40 minutes with Robert Baloucoune and Werner Kok adding to their first half scores to both bag braces.
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“That’s the way we want to try and be,” said Murphy of the second half effort which had seen Ulster play some irresistible attacking rugby.
“That’s the type of team that we want to try and be, so, you know, it’s really, really satisfying to see us actually go after the side that we’re playing against and, all things going well, we’ll see plenty more of that.”
“I think the players are really believing in how we’re trying to play the game, they’re really bought in, they’re working really hard.”
Singling out 23-year-old centre Postlethwaite, at inside centre for the injured Stuart McCloskey and who set up both of Kok’s tries, Murphy said: “Next week we play in Europe (against Racing 92 in the Challenge Cup) and the game that Jude played last year against Bordeaux (in the Champions Cup) showed you how good he was.
“But the one out here (against Benetton), he was flying around the place, he’s into everything. There’s certain parts of his game that he needs to keep on improving, but at six foot five and 89 kilos, he’s an absolute handful.
“He’s working really hard and he’s just going to get better and better,” Murphy added.
And assessing the overall performance he said: “I think it’s five weeks since we played, so it’s really, you know, you’re always going to have a little bit of a hangover coming in, you know, off that break.
“But, you know, I loved the fact at half-time we were down, the lads came into it at half-time very calm, very controlled and we reassessed what we were doing and we went out and tried to apply our game again and I thought we’d done that really well in the second half.”
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'That's the type of team we want to try and be' - Murphy hails Ulster and Postlethwaite
A SUPER-CHARGED SECOND half performance allowed Ulster stretch away to put nearly 50 points on Benetton to ensure the province returned from the five-week break in a way which clearly pleased head coach Richie Murphy.
Though they had fallen behind with the last action of the opening half, Jacob Umaga’s long range penalty putting the visitors 13-12 in front, Ulster who had Jude Postlethwaite looking particularly sharp throughout, racked up 35 unanswered points in what remained.
In all, Ulster scored seven tries, five, including their penalty try, arriving in the second 40 minutes with Robert Baloucoune and Werner Kok adding to their first half scores to both bag braces.
“That’s the way we want to try and be,” said Murphy of the second half effort which had seen Ulster play some irresistible attacking rugby.
“That’s the type of team that we want to try and be, so, you know, it’s really, really satisfying to see us actually go after the side that we’re playing against and, all things going well, we’ll see plenty more of that.”
“I think the players are really believing in how we’re trying to play the game, they’re really bought in, they’re working really hard.”
Singling out 23-year-old centre Postlethwaite, at inside centre for the injured Stuart McCloskey and who set up both of Kok’s tries, Murphy said: “Next week we play in Europe (against Racing 92 in the Challenge Cup) and the game that Jude played last year against Bordeaux (in the Champions Cup) showed you how good he was.
“He’s working really hard and he’s just going to get better and better,” Murphy added.
And assessing the overall performance he said: “I think it’s five weeks since we played, so it’s really, you know, you’re always going to have a little bit of a hangover coming in, you know, off that break.
“But, you know, I loved the fact at half-time we were down, the lads came into it at half-time very calm, very controlled and we reassessed what we were doing and we went out and tried to apply our game again and I thought we’d done that really well in the second half.”
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