We might be over a month past Halloween, but there’s still something about the prospect of travelling to Toulouse that gives a sense of the heebie-jeebies, at least to Richie Murphy anyway.
In fairness, you can hardly blame him when you look at what his Ulster side are coming up against. The name Antoine Dupont would strike fear into anyone before you consider the cohort of rugby’s Galacticos that accompany him, including nine other French internationals, two Argentine internationals and a former All Black and Wallaby each.
As defending European and Top14 champions, Toulouse’s reputation precedes them. As does Ulster’s, to a degree, as a team that are very much at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to competing for silverware.
Take the 2024/25 season alone as an example. Toulouse are at their rampaging best, top of the Top14 with eight wins from their opening 11 games. Ulster are 10th in the United Rugby Championship with three wins from seven.
While David v Goliath would maybe be a tad harsh on an Ulster side that has shown glimpses of doing some special things, there is no doubting where the bookies have stacked their odds and it is why Murphy has more than just the result on his mind at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.
“Excitement? Probably. Fear? A little bit,” he concedes of his mental approach.
“You look at their team, they’re two or three deep international-wise in pretty much every position. But there is things in their game that you look at and there is opportunity. It’s whether you’re good enough to take that.
“The boys have trained well today, prepared well yesterday. We’re building towards the weekend. European rugby is the pinnacle of club rugby, so we want to go out there and try our best.
“It’s like last week, it’s trying to be more consistent in the moment. It’s fits and starts, there’s good things we’ve been doing and then we have moments of lapses of concentration.
“If we have any lapses of concentration this week, it’ll cost us.
“They’re probably the best team in transition. They have a massive scrum and massive maul. We’re going to have to be very, very good to get anything out of the game.”
Read more
Ben Carson bags a try during Ulster’s inter-provincial loss to Leinster at Ravenhill
The previous weekend’s loss to Leinster was a little bit of a kicker in that the game was very much there to be won for Ulster, only they couldn’t do enough to edge ahead of their rivals and, in the end, had to settle for just the losing bonus point from the contest at Ravenhill.
But, as has been the case for most of the 2024/25 season, it is still a learning curve for a lot of this squad, particularly the likes of young centre Ben Carson, who is emerging as one of the bright sparks from a lukewarm start to the campaign, as well as hooker James McCormick, who will not forget his experience scrummaging against a front-row containing former France international Rabah Slimani.
It will be a similar baptism of fire this weekend in Toulouse who, unlike Leinster, will have their full cohort of internationals at their disposal and will use them to full effect.
Ulster, too, will welcome back the likes of Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Cormac Izuchukwu, Stuart McCloskey and Tom O’Toole, but there will still be players coming up against global superstars for the first time.
“For some of those younger players, even playing against some of those players, not even because it’s Toulouse in Toulouse, will be an experience in itself,” admits Murphy.
“Again, as part of the journey of this team, this will be another week that, no matter what happens in the game, win or lose, there’s going to be massive learnings in that regard.
“We’re certainly going down there to play and impose ourselves on top of Toulouse.
“We’re under no illusions how tough that is going to be, but if we can get our primary possession and get the ball on the park, we’ll be looking to play hopefully with a bit more accuracy.
“We’re probably slightly below where we want to be. We’ve had a tough run as well; if you look at it, we’ve played the top three teams in the League at the minute, we’ve been in South Africa on the Highveld.
“Between the Cardiff and the Leinster game, we probably should be one better if not two better. But we’re a young side, we’re going to have ups and downs and we’re going to have to keep battling away. We probably want to be higher up the table.”
As part of helping that learning process, former Ulster winger Rob Lyttle has been brought in to help an ailing back-three that is currently without Robert Baloucoune, Ethan McIlroy and Jacob Stockdale all out injured and Aaron Sexton reportedly leaving the province to pursue a place on the NFL’s International Player Pathway.
“Rob has come in in a training capacity over the last few weeks to see where we are with the back-three players. Came in, fitted in like he was never away,” praises Murphy.
“I remember him when he was back in the Academy when I came up as part of my Irish role. Came back in, fitted in really well, trained this week. He will be released back to his club (Banbridge) this week, but we felt we needed another veteran back-three presence in the building over these next couple of weeks.”
Ulster will be without John Cooney (hamstring) and Ben Moxham (knee) for the clash, but Werner Kok is fit.