Ulster had to cope with plenty of adversity in their 41-17 loss to Leinster on Saturday night, and they also fired a few shots more than recent visitors to the Aviva. Yet Richie Murphy was left counting the potentially heavy costs of a spirited display and also questioned Leinster’s legality at the breakdown and scrum.
Ulster slipped to 10th in the URC table, three points outside the top eight with three games remaining. Next Saturday’s final home match of the season against the Sharks, and a Kingspan Stadium farewell for the departing John Cooney, Kieran Treadwell and others, is now a must-win game.
“Yeah, it definitely is,” admitted Murphy. “To get into the top eight it’s very hard to know what you need. But 47/48 points would probably do it and we’re on 37 points at the moment, so 10 or 11 points we would be pretty happy with, whether that be three wins or [two wins] and picking up a couple of bonus point.
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“It’s going to be very tight because a lot of the teams have to play against each other as well,” said Murphy, adding that they had “three finals” remaining.
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“Our big worry is what kind of state our troops are going to be in. I know mentally they’ll bounce back and physically we can freshen them up but it’s just where we sit with injuries.”
Ulster lost Stuart McCloskey (groin) in the warm-up, his replacement, Stewart Moore (HIA) and Mike Lowry (stretchered off after a head knock) as well as Andrew Warwick (neck) by half-time, before their other loosehead Callum Reid was helped off with a knee injury.
Losing Moore and Lowry was compounded by a 6-2 bench split, meaning “a totally rejigged” backline with Nathan Doak shifting to fullback and “two 20-year-olds (Jack Murphy and Wilhelm de Klerk) playing against a Leinster line speed where we’re struggling to get on the front foot.
“It was a massive effort from our lads, you see it all the way to the end of the game, which is something that over the last number of weeks that I think is really starting to come to the fore. Very proud of the effort.
“There are definitely things in our game that we can improve pretty quickly and some things that just frustrate in or around breakdown. Leinster are tough to play at the breakdown, especially if they’re allowed dirty the breakdown as much as they do, it’s then very hard to get quick ball to play off,” said Murphy.
“We scored 17 points against them. No one has scored for the last couple of weeks against them. That gives us something. Going in there, we had a bit of a plan. We couldn’t quite execute it. Again, it comes down to trying to create that quick ruck ball off that first, second phase.
“We probably weren’t accurate enough ourselves, but there was a couple of times when lads would line up at the back of a tackle and guys are on the side of a ruck. It’s very difficult to play against. Their line speed is incredible, but is it always coming from an onside position? I’d question that.”
Murphy said that Leinster’s defence is not without its “weaknesses”, albeit exposing them is another matter “especially when you can’t get quick ball.”
He added: “The scrum dominance they had in the first half, we didn’t feel that was right. We felt they were stepping around the corner and the breakdown, go and have a look yourself.”
Another timely boost was the return of Cormac Izuchukwu, who accelerated through a gap in Leinster’s defence from John Cooney’s disguised reverse pass inside and veered around Jamie Osborne, as well as causing plenty of grief to the home lineout.
“It’s brilliant to have him back,” admitted Murphy. “He has done a couple of weeks training now and coming into this game we had to get him to about 50 minutes, and try and get him off.
“He has turned into a really good athlete. His lineout work was exceptional. We probably upset six of the Leinster lineouts in the first half. He’s a big part of that, really growing into that role. Then obviously his strengths around the pitch are there for everyone to see. A lovely runner, very balanced and pretty strong too.”
