Alan O’Connor has been here before, smarting from a heavy defeat in France and plumbing into the depths of where Ulster go now. In fact, he started in the province’s previous heaviest defeat in Europe 10 years ago.
It’s therefore understandably difficult for him to sit there and try to draw positives from what is, unquestionably, a painful defeat. No matter where this squad is right now or how good the opposition are, no side ever wants to ship 61 points in one game.
So that is why it will undoubtedly be a Monday off that will be filled with a lot of painful reflection when it comes to wading through all the things that went wrong in a 61-21 drubbing at the hands of a rampant Toulouse side.
But this is where the experience comes in, in that O’Connor knows that these tough days won’t last. Since being part of that 60-22 hammering in Toulon 10 years ago, he has been to a Pro14 Grand Final with Ulster and back into the knockouts of the Champions Cup.
So when assessing this latest humbling in France, the second-row is opting to have a short-term memory. Bordeaux-Begles are coming to Ravenhill next week and if they want to reach the last-16 of this year’s Champions Cup then they have to take something from it, and it potentially even has to be at least four points.
“How we respond to mistakes is one of (the learnings), our all-round mentality,” says the 32-year-old, who captained Ulster at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.
“We’re at home next weekend and we’ve had all the Irish guys back around the squad for the last couple of days, so we’ll build nicely and look forward to playing at home. We back ourselves at home against anyone in Europe, so we’ll look forward to another challenge against a big French team.
“We’ll take learnings from all aspects of the game. There’s a lot of young guys that played today, especially in the forwards. James McCormick and Scott Wilson did really well, especially in those scrums. We were giving up a lot of weight but they did really well. Our maul defence was good as well.
“Hopefully they take that experience in the bank and they’ll grow from it. Being a senior guy, I still take learnings from every game. We all love to grow and hopefully we keep doing that.”
It was a performance against Toulouse that, while it did have its positives, featured Ulster spending a lot of time under their own posts trying to get themselves ready to go again after watching their hosts cross the whitewash.
With such a young squad, which featured four players who were making their first European starts, making sure they didn’t completely buckle under the pressure against the defending European champions was vital in helping them continue their development.
“We knew they were going to have their purple patches and it was how we respond and react to things. We just tried to pull together and talk about things we’re good at and we’re going for it, make sure everyone stays on the same page,” adds O’Connor.
“We got a few learnings in defence, anyway. Early on we gave (Antoine) Dupont too much room in the midfield and he ran across us and we weren’t together as a connected defence like we normally are. You give Dupont too much space and time and he’ll usually make the right decision.”
Indeed, O’Connor gives a good assessment of just why the mercurial scrum-half is so good, Dupont scoring a try in the rout and having some kind of a role in just about all eight of Toulouse’s others, including a stunning crossfield kick for Ange Capuozzo to slide in for the French side’s eighth.
Then again, when you have a star-studded squad like Toulouse’s, when you keep an eye on one of their stars for too long, odds are one of the others is going to make you pay.
“He’s a running threat, he’s good in transition, he’s a kicking threat which you saw with some of those 50:22s. You turn over the ball and he doesn’t even have to look, he just kicks it and all of a sudden they’ve gained 40 or 50m,” praises O’Connor.
“The fact that he’s an all-round threat and he has so many players around him who are threats that he can bring into the game as well is incredible.”