Ulster head coach Richie Murphy admitted it was vitally important the province secured European rugby for later in the season, even if they don’t yet know what competition they’ll be playing in come April.
Cormac Izuchukwu notched a hat-trick as Ulster ran rampant in the second-half of their final Champions Cup pool game against the Exeter Chiefs, running in five tries in an eight-try 52-24 rout of the former champions at Ravenhill.
That leaves them interested spectators on Sunday to discover whether they have done enough to reach the last-16 of Europe’s premier competition, with Bordeaux’s result against the Sharks the determining factor.
Should the Sharks pick up either a bonus point or lose by less than 28 points then they will progress at Ulster’s expense but, rather than be worried as to that outcome, Murphy was simply pleased to ensure they will have a game to look forward to in three months’ time.
“It’s going to be really important. Our focus will turn back into the League, we’ve five really important games coming up and I think that leads us nicely into Europe,” said the head coach.
“We know we’ve a European game coming up – who that will be and in what competition, that’ll depend what happens on Sunday. But it’s important we win rugby matches and over the last while we haven’t won enough, so we’ll enjoy this one tonight and go after more over the next few weeks.
“I’m sure I will be watching (Sunday’s game). I nearly watch every game of rugby that’s on anyway. The prize is probably a trip to Bordeaux. We’d love to play them again, they’re one of the top teams in Europe.
“By the time we play them again we’ll have some reinforcements coming back into our squad. We’re at a stage where over the next few games we’ll be dripping some very senior players back into our team. These guys have done an incredible job and it’ll add to the competition in the squad.
“We have competed in this competition – alright, Toulouse blew us away in the first half but second half we scrapped with them a bit, Bordeaux for 60 minutes we were pretty good but got blown away, so it was nice to do it the other way tonight.
“Loads of things we need to be better at but it gives us a chance later on.”
It had looked nervy at one stage for Ulster, who trailed by two tries after just 15 minutes and were being out-matched by an under-strength Chiefs side, and were still being held at the break after the two sides cancelled each other out with three tries apiece.
But in the second half the hosts’ quality showed and, after racking up the four-try bonus point just eight minutes after the restart, they set about cutting down the deficit to the Sharks in fourth place in Pool A with a scythingly effective performance.
“We knew when they picked the team they picked, those guys would have a huge amount to play for coming over here and they had a massive pack. It told towards the end where we managed to get the ball on the pack, move them around and play through that blitz a bit,” explained Murphy.
“Once we got behind, we actually took the chances we created, which was good.
“(At half-time) we talked about going back to the plan that we put in at the start of the week, try and control more field position, turn Exeter. We also talked about the manic line-speed that we were facing that would drop off as the game progressed and we would able to find some passes. That’s the way the game went. Guys got a little more comfortable.
“It’s very difficult to play against line-speed teams, especially with the young guys that we have out there playing. They’ve done a really good job tonight. There are things we’ll want to get better at but ultimately the guys played for each other.
“I thought the pack were incredible tonight. A lot of credit has to go to Jimmy Duffy for what he has done in a very short space of time in relation to line-out, attack, defence. The maul is much better, the scrum, he’s done a super job in that area with young guys under immense pressure at the very top of the game having to step up.”
While Scott Wilson was the man who walked away as man of the match after a superb individual performance, Izuchukwu claimed the metaphorical match ball as he crossed the whitewash three times for his first career hat-trick, although Murphy was left to applaud the Ireland lock’s overall performance.
“Izzy’s been brilliant. Everyone talks about him roaming in the outside channels and carrying ball, but there’s actually much more to him than that,” enthused the Ulster chief.
“His line-out work over the last few months has been really big, teams don’t really want to throw anywhere near him and he’s spooking line-outs, which is fantastic. He’s working hard all the time and he’s playing with a smile on his face.”
There was a small tinge of frustration to the result in that the gap between Ulster and the Sharks could have been smaller had it not been for a Zack Wimbush try with effectively the final play of the game, handing the Chiefs a consolation score.
That could prove vital come Sunday but, rather than be annoyed at the late setback, Murphy was pleased to see his team continue to be enterprising late in the game trying to grab a ninth score of their own.
“You always want the lads to play. We want to be a team that moves the ball to space, we want to be positive. If we can’t do that, then our decision making has to be good and we need to be able to apply pressure through that,” he added.
“We’ll go back and have a look at that and, between us and the players, decide is it the right thing to do. Ultimately, tonight was about winning a rugby match. The guys were asking about five points but just go out, make the decisions on the pitch and we’ll get what we can get.
“If you’d offered us that scoreline before the game, would we have taken it? Absolutely.”