ULSTER COACH RICHIE Murphy hailed his squad’s determination to deliver an all-action performance in the wake of their 28-7 bonus point defeat of the Bulls in Belfast.

Praising their display in both attack and defence to bring about victory over the South Africans, Murphy said: “They (the players) want to show what it means to play for each other and for the province.

“We’re delighted with how they’ve started the season,” he added, alluding to the opening day bonus point home win over the Dragons, though the province failed to play Edinburgh in round two due to Storm Amy, “and we’ve just got to keep building.

“The players within the team are the ones who go out. They’re the ones who took a load of stick last year and they want to answer that.”

Ulster now make the long haul to South Africa with the Sharks and Lions coming up and though Murphy admitted that the province will face huge challenges, they are determined to keep chasing results.

“Going down to South Africa is obviously a very difficult place to go, I think next week will be something like 26 degrees and 77% humidity but we’re going down there on a mission to win.”

After being tied 7-7 at the midway point, Ulster scored three quickfire tries from new signing Juarno Augustus on his first start, Rob Herring and Cormac Izuchukwu to build upon Stuart McCloskey’s first half effort with Nathan Doak converting all four.

Ulster showed ambition with the ball throughout but also shored up their defence – a genuine weak point last season – only conceding one try to the visitors.

“We want to be a little bit unpredictable in our game and we’re obviously trying to work the ball to space,” stated Murphy.

“Sometimes that space is on the edge, sometimes it’s through the middle and sometimes it’ll be in the backfield. Being able to see and execute and be calm enough under huge pressure to be able to do that, that’s what we need to do.

“Willie Faloon’s defence has taken leaps forward too and the guys looked like they wanted to defend for each other.

“Last year when we were line broken, we were conceding tries,” Murphy stated.

Augustus was also praised for his work rate after putting in a typically muscular 60 minutes.

“He (Augustus) probably hasn’t had the pre-season that we would have wanted to give him with his injury but he definitely makes up for it in determination and he’d obviously have a bit of a point to prove coming from South Africa himself.

“We’re pretty happy with him and we’ll build on that over the next number of weeks.”