Winners will feel benefits 'for a month'

THE SENSE of relief was palpable. Had Ulster succumbed to a seventh defeat in eight matches entering the November break, it would have been a long month. Instead, Matt Williams was cleverly able to ensure all his 22 players could share in the feel-good factor, and then returned to the pitch to milk the applause of those in the 10,058 crowd who had braved a fierce night and stayed with them through the thin times.

Highlighting their much improved defensive effort - especially Bryn Cunningham covering a huge amount of ground to win a fingertip touchdown ahead of Anthony Horgan in the 37th minute - Williams observed: "I thought Bryn's chase-back showed just how much we wanted it. We just had to win, we just didn't have anywhere to go.

"For a month the players are going to feel good about themselves and it has been hard this year to feel good about themselves. Secondly, I don't have to try and find ways of talking to them and show them they are doing better, which for a young team you have to do."

He also hailed a new-found maturity in "out-Munstering" Munster by the manner they played the conditions.

"We also made a conscious decision that we are a good running team, we keep the ball in hand well - the boys have been working on those techniques and improving and I said don't change tonight."

In this, he acknowledged the contribution of Ian Humphreys: "I have to give Ian Humphreys massive credit. He's been sitting on the bench and I thought he controlled the game really, really well.

"His conversion at the end of the game sort of typified what he did. We have been doing a lot of work at getting our 10s to take the ball to the line and be threatening as I feel we have been sitting in the pocket too much. Both Niall (O'Connor) and Humps have got better at that but Humps was very good, committed the inside runners and then we shifted it wide."

"It was my best night since coming home," admitted Humphreys. "It was the first game in which I've had a decent run-out and it was nice to get out onto the pitch. It was a miserable night but I thought we played some decent rugby and hopefully the fans enjoyed it.

"The fans have been unbelievable. We've been dreadful this year at times. There's no point beating around the bush. There have been times when it has been pretty bad and there have been times when we felt we've been playing well but just haven't got the breaks. Tonight we got a few lucky bounces and offloads that went to hand and when you have finishers like Timoci then you are going to snap up those chances."

Williams was entitled to feel vindicated by Nagusa's performance.

"He only turned 21 the week before he arrived. If you put the ball in his hands he will beat anyone," said the coach, who acknowledged that positionally the Fijian has been a bit exposed by the kicking game of opponents.

"We have done a lot of work with him and it takes time to become more comfortable with the structured Northern Hemisphere game and I think that has affected his offence. And we didn't know how to use him as well.

"Whereas I feel we are really understanding what he is good at. You see a lot of guys trailing him and we are using him to trail guys as well."

Unsurprisingly, there were no excuses from the Munster coach Tony McGahan, just a generous and candid assessment: "We were certainly outclassed this evening by a very good Ulster side. We knew it would be an extremely tough challenge up here and we certainly weren't disappointed.

"From a technical point of view we were very poor in defence. Our first-up tackling left a lot to be desired. I thought we were beaten at the contact area and I thought our kicking in the first half really cost us dearly in field position and ultimately that was their lead in the first half, from our mistakes really."

The defeat will "sit in the stomach" during the November break, when Munster, of course, have a minor little friendly with some blokes dressed all in black, but he'd have taken eight wins from the first phase of nine games.

"Without a doubt. As I said to the players in the dressing-room, the first 40 minutes probably put us under the cosh.

"So 40 minutes in a 17-week block certainly isn't going to detract from the good work we've done and we won't let it."