ULSTER HEAD COACH Richie Murphy reckons Saturday’s dramatic 20-19 home win over URC champions Glasgow Warriors will boost the belief and resilience of his squad.
Replacement scrum half David Shanahan snatched the result for Ulster in the game’s final play which came when he scored from close range in the 84th minute.
“Teams are built around that,” Murphy said of the URC campaign’s opening round result.
“We’re really happy with the win,” he added as Ulster now face a two-game trip to South Africa to take on the Lions and Bulls, both at altitude and without six players who will also be heading to the Rainbow Nations with Emerging Ireland.
“They (the players) could have easily walked away from that game with a point and been happy enough,” Murphy added of a clash which entered its closing stages with Ulster trailing 19-15 after having been mostly on the backfoot for the first hour.
“There’s loads to work on, we’re nowhere near happy with the performance but we’ll take the win and move on.
“We want to be a team that will throw everything we’ve got at the opposition and if the opposition are too good for us, we’ll that’s fine. We’ll accept that.
“We didn’t throw everything that we had because we were just too inaccurate in many phases of the game, but we showed great character.
“We were put under a lot of pressure, and we’ve come up with some good answers at the end.
“We weren’t anywhere near our best, and we’ve found a way to win.”
Murphy had special praise for Ulster’s bench which helped drag the home team over the line.
“The players coming on in the second half added, which is exactly what we wanted to do, and a special mention for Dave Shanahan who had a very good end to the game,” he said.
“He works really hard. He sets standards all through the week.
“It’s no surprise when someone like that steps up and fills that hole towards the back end of the game.
“We’re delighted for him. It’s a big moment. Delighted for the team as well because we played a really good team, we weren’t anywhere near our best, and we’ve found a way to win.
“(And) bringing the likes of Tom O’Toole and Andy Warwick on, young James McCormick in the front-row, Izzy (Cormac Izuchukwu) coming on and giving us a little bit of carry with (Harry) Sheridan, those guys are starting to become more experienced and did really well at the backend of the game.”