When you have to follow up your record European defeat of the professional era at the hands of Toulouse by taking on the next best team in France, there’s no time for feeling sorry for yourself, and Ulster’s Stewart Moore insists that’s exactly the approach the province are going to take.
Richie Murphy’s side were humbled by the defending European and French champions, who ran in nine tries at the Stade Ernest-Wallon on their way to a comfortable 61-21 Champions Cup success on Sunday afternoon, as they suffered their third straight loss in all competitions.
Unfortunately for Ulster, things don’t get any easier from here. While they at least have the comfort of returning to Ravenhill this weekend for their second Champions Cup pool game, the standard of opposition will offer no comfort as it is Bordeaux Bègles who travel to Belfast.
Having suffered at the hands of the Top14 leaders, Ulster now have to bounce back against the side directly below them in the French domestic standings, but Moore insists there is nobody who is moping after the Toulouse defeat and they will be ready to go come Saturday.
“You’ve got no time to feel sorry for yourselves and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re a young side but we have to go into next week all guns blazing,” insists the full-back.
“In terms of progression, we just want to go out and perform well. We’re coming up against these big French and English teams and we’re trying to improve every week.
“We’ve got plenty of things in the locker. Sometimes we show it, sometimes we don’t, but that’s rugby these days, every team has a defence that’s good enough to stop these things and block space.
“We’ve got plenty of calibre behind us in terms of ideas. What we tried in Toulouse didn’t work but we’ll go again with some new ideas.”
In damp and dreary conditions in Toulouse, Ulster were undone in a first half that yielded just as many mistakes from themselves as it did magical moments from their hosts, who were sensational in finishing off the opportunities they were presented, led as always by the mercurial magician that is Antoine Dupont.
It is now a well-worn line that Ulster are a young side still trying to make their way in the European sphere, with two homegrown players in Ben Carson and James McCormick making their first starts in the Champions Cup at the Ernest-Wallon, and such a game, lopsided as the scoreline was, can only be a positive learning experience.
“It was tough. Toulouse put a lot of pressure on us all over the park. We’re obviously disappointed, we did a lot of things we set out to do during the week but they didn’t come to fruition,” sighed Moore.
“Here in France, where the crowd gets behind them, that is tough. But we’re a very strong focused team, so we’ll pick ourselves up and go again.
“I don’t see myself as a young lad anymore, so it’s as much of a responsibility for me as well to take your learnings. We’ll go into next week not licking our wounds and feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ll learn from this and go straight to Bordeaux.
“There’s no point in crying about it, everyone will take learnings from that game whether they’re young or old.”