ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, the brand new Ulster coach Richie Murphy saw plenty of grounds for optimism after his team lost 22-12 to the Sharks in sweaty Durban.
“Look, we are disappointed that we did not get the result but we have been together for only three training sessions and a 24-hour travel day,” said Murphy, who took office on Monday.
“We knew we were in for a tough time when we learned that a host of their big-name Springboks were coming back, anytime you come to South Africa you will be in for a very physical test, but we got some Ireland boys back ourselves and I am proud of how we stayed in the fight.
“We were working off about 30 percent of possession,” Murphy continued. “That makes it difficult and even with what we had we did not look after it well enough.
“I thought early in the game we put some phases together and caused them some trouble but in the second quarter, they slowed us down and we did not look after the ball.”
Conditions in the east coast city did not favour the tourists. It is still muggy and hot in KwaZulu-Natal and the Sharks have the advantage of living and training in steamy conditions that make the ball as slippery as soap.
“It was very humid and the Irish boys are not used to that. I think it might account for some of the knock-ons — you have the ball and it squirts out of your grasp because of the sweat,” Murphy said.
Ulster move on to Cape Town for another tough assignment against the Stormers, the former champions, and Murphy says the week ahead will be used constructively.
“Over the next few weeks, we want to add some things to our game. We feel that coming in, there are certain areas we can improve that will help us get back our confidence.
“We can get better on attack where I feel we are stopping at the gain line. There are a few things we can do differently to correct that and get more go-forward.”
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Great news especially with rojo being able to cover left full and centre half . Unfortunately the damage is already done for the league this season
@hard yaka: yeah hard yaka can’t see city being caught but great to have the 3 of them back.
Pogba will be a huge addition. He’s been a massive loss. As somebody who never rated Herrera, I’m glad the rest of the Utd fans have finally copped how limited he is.
@Lurfic: Most be you only man and a handful of others. I highly rate Herrera and quite a lot of united fan base too.
Herrera is a work horse, future captain I think.
Great news. Pogba is back. Hahahah brillo. Points be dropped even more so now.
@Is mise muc gránna: what’s that comment based on that doesn’t make any sense united have dropped more points without him playing so what sort of comment is that?
@John Barnes: Don’t feed the semiliiterate troll John.
@John Barnes: Because he actually hasn’t a clue what he is saying, just ‘attempting’ to be funny and kick off another war of words by muttering any old shit.
@Declan Doyle: that would be semiliterate……
@Jason Brosnahan: That’s correct. Careful or they’ll be after you also.
@John Barnes: The point is that in my opinion he is rubbish so great and brillo he is back.
@Is mise muc gránna: who actually says “brillo”? What are you 7 ?
@Is mise muc gránna: Know when you’re beaten. Shut it.
Happy days
Delighted to have them back especially Rojo the guy is a beast and a brick wall.
Yawn. So overvalued and over rated. Better than the crap playing at the moment to be fair though