Richie Murphy refused to admit that he was overly disappointed with Ulster’s performance from their 47-21 hammering at the hands of a powerful Bulls side.
The Ulster coach instead praised his team, containing a number of inexperienced players with some making their debuts and others first starts, for their refusal to lie down as they chased hard for what would have been a bonus point had they scored one more try in Pretoria.
“Not really,” is how Murphy reacted to being asked if he was disappointed at how Ulster had performed in the seven-try drubbing.
“I thought our boys stuck to the task really well, obviously we were out powered in the set piece, but I thought our boys stuck in the game and played some really good rugby at times.
“I know we were well beaten but they never gave up and they worked really hard.”
The visitors scored an excellent first half try from Jacob Stockdale but were trailing 40-7 on the hour before they moved the scoreboard again when Ben Carson crossed to be shortly followed by a well-worked try by Stewart Moore.
“We’re disappointed not to come away with something probably more, likely to be a four try bonus point than something else, but definitely not a disappointment from our boys,” Murphy insisted.
“Our two front rowers have three caps each and one of them has only joined us late during the season so that is where we are at the moment,” the Ulster coach added after losing both games on the mini tour of South Africa.
“I think it is a pretty tough place to come on tour,” he added.
“Twenty five degree heat, in our tour we had two games at altitude which is obviously difficult, one at sea level and one at altitude might be a better way of splitting it if that is possible,” he stated after conceding 35 points at the Lions in the previous round but coming away with a try bonus point.
“Coming to South Africa anytime is difficult, 25 degree heat we are not used to playing in that but the guys stuck at it and we were still there at the end of the game.”
And noting that playing against a Bulls side top heavy with returning Springboks, Murphy said: “Teams have come here with a lot stronger teams that we had out there and have had the same thing done to them.”
“We were dominated in the set piece, but I think when it came to playing with ball in hand, we held our own pretty well.”
Though Ulster have conceded 12 tries from taking on the Bulls and Lions and coughed up 82 points, Murphy refused to be downcast moving forward with the next game at home to Connacht on Saturday in an interprovincial which will need to be won.
“It was very obvious (today) that we were under massive pressure at the scrum,” said Murphy.
“That wasn’t a surprise to us it was just whether we were going to be able to get the ball away from that area and get the ball into phase quick enough.
“I thought when we got into phase we caused them a fair bit of trouble.”