Ulster head coach Richie Murphy bemoaned his side’s “basic errors” as they suffered a record European defeat of the professional era, shipping nine tries in a 61-21 hammering at the hands of defending champions Toulouse.
While few gave Ulster a chance of winning the game, leaking six tries and seeing Toulouse mirror the clock by scoring 40 points before half-time was not in the pre-game plan, and a penalty try with the final play of the game ensured Ulster would make history for the wrong reasons.
Murphy’s side wouldn’t even have the consolation of a bonus point to take back to Belfast as, despite tries from James McCormick, Stewart Moore and Iain Henderson, they couldn’t find that crucial fourth that would have been vital in the Champions Cup standings.
And in the end the head coach was instead left to urge his side to take their learnings from a tough afternoon in dismal conditions in the south of France as they continue their rebuild, albeit now with a painful result from which to grow.
“Very tough. Conceding 61 points wasn’t part of the plan. A lot of the basics weren’t at the level we needed them to be, we defended poorly at times,” sighed Murphy.
“But I thought our maul defence was quite good at times and our scrum went pretty well against a top, top scrum, so there was that. Scoring three tries against Toulouse is a decent return and if we had have been able to squeeze that last one out, walking out of here with a bonus point mightn’t have been too bad.
“But some of our defence, breakdown and attack just wasn’t at the level needed at this level. Our breakdown didn’t function anywhere near the level it’s been at today. We were exposed in that area.”
While Toulouse, led masterfully as per usual by tormentor-in-chief Antoine Dupont and breakdown menace Jack Willis, were sensational in the first half, Ulster were very much the architects of their own downfall at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.
Three of Toulouse’s six tries came directly off Ulster mistakes as Aidan Morgan’s missed touch off a penalty, an unguarded ball at the back of a ruck and a James McNabney knock-on from the restart all gave the hosts the field position to strike.
“They were very good with ball in hand but we also have to give them the time and space to be able to play and that’s probably what we did,” added Murphy.
“You could see they had us in the outside channels, which is something that’s disappointing and we have to work on, it’s something that we haven’t been exposed to before now. That will be one of the things in the review we need to get right for next week.”
Having just been humbled by the Top14 leaders, Ulster’s task becomes no easier as their next assignment is the team directly below Toulouse in the French domestic standings as Bordeaux-Begles make the trip to Ravenhill on Saturday.
With an inexperienced squad still learning how to navigate big games like these, this was a baptism of fire for the province, with the likes of McCormick and Ben Carson making their first European starts, and getting an up close and personal look at the standard they want to reach could be a valuable learning experience.
“I think it’ll be massive for them,” agreed Murphy.
“Quite a few guys there making their European debut, quite a few guys with less than ten caps for Ulster, and to come to a place like this and play against a quality outfit like Toulouse will be a big learning for them about what the real level is.
“What we talk about in (the dressing room) is between us, I’m not going to talk about it in public. We’re disappointed. The players are disappointed. We don’t go out there to get those kind of basic errors wrong that we did. We need to start there and build towards getting a performance in six days’ time when we face Bordeaux.
“We also need to be careful we don’t listen to too much on the outside and concentrate on our own game and get better. We’ve shown signs that we’re improving all through the season from where we were last year.
“We ran into a European juggernaut and we just weren’t at the races.”
Murphy confirmed that centre Carson suffered a knee-on-knee collision which forced his first-half substitution, but did believe that all 23 players that featured in Toulouse will be fit to face Bordeaux.