In the last six and a half months, stretching back to March 30, rather coincidentally shortly after Richie Murphy took over, Ulster have been involved in seven games that have finished with a winning margin of seven points or fewer.
Remarkably, they have managed to come out on top in five of them.
The latest came on Saturday when they edged out 14-man Connacht in a full-blooded inter-provincial tie at Ravenhill, Murphy’s men triumphing 32-27 for their second win within a score of the season having started the campaign with a 20-19 victory over the Glasgow Warriors.
The latter in particular was impressive given how Ulster were still in their own half with the clock in the red, yet still managed to work their way up the pitch and score the winning try four minutes after the 80 had expired, a never-say-die attitude that resonated throughout the entire squad.
“I think there was definitely a feeling in those two games where we had an attitude of we’re not going to accept not winning,” explains flanker David McCann.
“You can feel it on the pitch and I think you can see it out there the way we are attacking close to the line or the way we are working hard in a scrambled D towards the end of the game.
“I think that is it and we need to keep that mentality going forward.”
While there is an acceptance that Ulster are going to have to go through their fair share of trials and tribulations this season as they rebuild their squad from the ground up, that innate ability to win close games is something that cannot be coached, but instead is inherent within players and honed through experience.
That win over Glasgow in particular will have been a valuable one to bank for the young squad, as were the last-gasp victories over Leinster in May and Cardiff in April thanks to late John Cooney penalties.
“You can see in people’s eyes they are not giving up and they still want to win the game,” continues McCann.
“Ultimately you need that or we wouldn’t go the length of the pitch and score four or five minutes into the red.
“You can see it, you can feel it but it is more in actions.
“The more you do it and the more you can prove that you can do it the belief grows and it is something that we are trying to do.
“It has started well in those two home games and finished well, so it is just keeping that middle period going well and then hopefully we won’t have to force results at the end of the game.
“But it is encouraging to show that we can do it.”
David McCann has hailed the attitude of his Ulster team-mates
Even more encouraging is the teams they have done it against. Having beaten the defending URC champions in week one, followed by two weeks in South Africa and then an inter-pro, to be eighth with 10 points from four games is nothing to be ashamed of.
“You sort of know what is out there and you have seen the quality of the teams,” continues McCann.
“Connacht are a good side, Glasgow are the champions and the two South African teams, especially away, are tough.
“I think people who played in those games that hadn’t played those teams before will be invaluable for us moving forward, and to do that in the first four weeks of the season is great.
“I think you have seen everyone is competitive, everyone is good and everyone can win games, so that challenge keeps going and it is really testing the squad to get the right people playing in those games, so it is really positive.”
Passing the Connacht test is one that will have been particularly pleasing in McCann’s case given how they have struggled against the westerners’ back row in previous meetings.
Fans will have grim memories of how Shamus Hurley-Langton, Conor Oliver and Cian Prendergast tore them apart in the URC Quarter-Final a year ago. The men in green have always seemed to have something of a hold on the Ulster back row in previous seasons.
Not on Saturday, though. Admittedly helped by a red card to Josh Murphy, the trio of McCann, Sean Reffell and Nick Timoney managed to keep their counterparts under wraps for the majority of the game, something the former is eager to keep going when the Ospreys come to town tomorrow night (7.35pm).
“I think we have been a bit naïve to (Connacht’s) game plan in the past few years and we let them come at us, whereas this year we didn’t wait for them to throw the first punch and that helped with the result,” says McCann.
“I don’t think we want to be waiting for teams to come at us — we want to go at them.
“It is doing it rather than just saying it, because it is easy to say but then actually doing it can be tougher on a Friday or Saturday night.”
After being Ulster’s player of the season in the last campaign, it has been another strong start to the year for the 24-year-old, who has started in three of the province’s four games to start the campaign and came off the bench in the other.
Not only that, but his versatility in the back row has been evident, too, starting at all three of blindside flanker, openside flanker and No.8 this season, and he is hoping to keep contributing no matter what number is on his back.
“I think as a back-row, it is now realistic to say you have to do it all, and your role will change depending on the lineout, for example,” he says.
“Other than that, I think you’re expected to tackle, carry and be a nuisance at the breakdown.
“I happy to do whatever, I’m in the line out so my role usually doesn’t change too much depending on the numbers.”