IT’S A DISAPPOINTING end to the season for Ulster as they exit the URC at the quarter-finals, yet there were parts of their performance against Leinster that offer supporters further encouragement.
The last couple of months of the season under new boss Richie Murphy have given hope that there are bright days ahead and though they were second best on a 43-20 scoreline in Dublin, the head coach was pleased with their effort.
Ulster had a particularly strong first quarter and were very close to scoring through number eight Nick Timoney, but they couldn’t turn the positive play into points.
“Early on we put them under a fair bit of pressure, a couple of bounces of the ball just wouldn’t go our way at that stage and getting over the line and not getting the ball down – we needed to put some scoreboard pressure on a team like Leinster,” said Murphy afterwards.
“They are very hard to handle when the power game comes at you. I thought our lads stuck in the game well.
“Obviously losing Cormac [Izuchukwu] early was a loss. We ended up down to… well, we’re missing four senior locks at that stage. It makes it a difficult place to be but our lads stuck in the fight really well.
“On a different day, a couple of things could have gone our way early on and we could have put more pressure on them but they were very good and very clinical when they got in our 22.”
Just before the half-time break, Ulster had more pressure in the Leinster 22.
They opted to go into the right corner with a penalty rather than kicking three points, keen to close the 17-0 scoreline with a try.
Ulster put together a promising maul but Caelan Doris helped to stop it by changing his bind, a moment Murphy felt could have been punished more severely than with a penalty.
“Ah, look, the first driving maul is going over the line, it’s going to be a try,” said Murphy.
“He [referee Andrew Brace] penalises them so I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be a penalty try, but it is what it is. You’ve got to move on. We had another opportunity and unfortunately, we didn’t get it.
“The decision on whether to go to the corner – we felt like we needed to score tries today in order to compete with the team we were playing against.”
Ulster had some joy with their contestable kicking tactics against Leinster, forcing a few aerial errors from the home side.
Yet Murphy felt there might have been more pay-off in that area if Ulster had been more accurate.
“Territory in the first half, we kind of controlled that well, created a couple of really good one-on-ones with Jacob [Stockale] against Ross [Byrne] and Jamison [Gibson-Park].
“A couple of weeks ago we were catching them. We couldn’t quite get them and that’s just the game, isn’t it?
“If we went out on the pitch and tried to play exactly like Leinster did we would have been beaten off the park.
“I thought tactically we went into the game with a good idea, went away from it a little bit but managed to veer back towards it, but again I thought we showed great character, kept fighting right to the end, which was satisfying from my point of view.”
