ULSTER COACH Richie Murphy admitted that the shock 15-14 home defeat to Zebre was bitterly disappointing and has done damage to their season.
Trailing 15-0 in the second half at a weather-blasted Belfast, Ulster left themselves with too much to do as Zebre deservedly won for the first time at the Kingspan Stadium.
“It’s very disappointing and we’ll have to move on now … it puts a dint in our season,” said Murphy.
“Yes, I’m massively disappointed, when these things happen you look at the week and how we prepared, did we do due diligence, and have we prepared the boys right?
“We run into a break now and it’s never nice after a loss.”
He continued: “We turned up feeling we were in a really good place ready to go, early in the game we talked about trying to apply pressure through field position but didn’t do that well enough.
“Fair play to Zebre they deserved their win.”
And alluding to trailing 15-0 in the game he said: “Put yourself in those positions and ultimately, you’re going to fall short.
“We need to find out why we were so far off at the start of the game and I suppose emotionally were we ready for the challenge that was coming at us, we felt that we were but when you see how we played we were well short of where we needed to be.”
Murphy also had a message for the Ulster supporters and while thanking them for turning out and sticking by the team he also apologised for the performance and shock defeat.
“I’m sorry that our performance didn’t match their (the supporters) enthusiasm for the team,” he said.
“We are working really hard sometimes they might look and say: ‘what is going on?’ but there is a huge amount of time and effort from everybody and we have to find a way to be more consistent in our performance.
“15-0 down and halfway through the second half and we tried to empty the bench to give us some energy and impetus.
“We started off and our scrum was under pressure, a couple of breakdowns and we needed to move the ball and get into our flow.
“We had talked about trying to pin Zebre back in their 22 but we didn’t do that.
“When you have a performance like that it was like Cardiff all over again maybe that’s something, last game in the block but ultimately the lads won’t enjoy their break,” said Murphy.
Imagine the howls of outrage and the screams of “Waaayyyycism!” on the journal if the situation was reversed!
But this is racism but not in the right way so no one will talk about it, no one likes to talk about racism against white people.
An everyday example of the double standards that exist with race relations.
I couldn’t possibly say whether Mike Tyson is racist – he may be, he may not be – but what I can say is that if this story was reversed, the Journal’s house woollies (regular readers know who they are) would have been all over this story like a rash. As it is they’re conspicuous in their absence.
Well including this thread there are currently 5 of the 14 comments on this page alluding to the fact that his remark was racist, that’s 36% of the comments on the page. Considering the guys other flaws that’s a pretty good hit rate.
So what if he’s a rapist, he was a damn good boxer.
*racist* Bloody auto correct.
Spike Lee is an overt racist yet he gets away with it even being nominated for Academy Awards.
Why is this animal kept in the spot light. He’s a convicted rapist and has done his sport no favours in bitting his opponents. He also feels it’s appropriate to call someone a “white motherf***er”. If he was called a black motherf***er it would be racist. He’s been in films, had huge air time on TV and Radio, it just doesn’t make sense. Can we not cut this guy loose and find decent people in the world to fill the role he’s occupying.
You can analyse and criticize till the cows come home but there’s only one conclusion you can arrive at.
Mike Tyson had no choice but to become Mike Tyson.
He was a boxer. A ruthless fighting machine. A man in a brutal sport trying to survive.
He was born for the ring.
And that makes raping ok then? Seriously we all have a huge part to play in who we become. External factors influence but not decide who we want to be.
Polarising characters be it positive or negative will always fascinate people, the media and of course people that can make money off their back.
Looking for Doug……
Role models must be petty thin on the ground these days
Why is this bullying rapist still being glorified today???
Cause he is awesome
So you think rape is awesome??? You pathetic fool
Mind your ears son mike is hungry …….
Mike Tyson’s Autobiography is a great read but it can easily be summarised in three words: Boxing, women, cocaine.
Don’t forget , rape.
He should be still in prison how he is allowed into Europe never mind Ireland baffles me because he is a convicted sex offender.
relax he’s not racist sure he was practically adopted by white folks. it’s just how them brooklyn boys talk.
Sun Kil Moon’s ‘Ghosts of the Great Highway’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjA3EbKsl4E&list=PL9C56160C8E63F654
One of the best albums of the last ten years.
Pays tribute to some boxing legends who died too young. Particularly poignant is Duk Koo Kim died in the ring against Ray Mancini, trying to haul himself to his feet with his last breath.
Changed the sport forever.
Well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBBqLPUxddc
A black man cannot be racist