There were some home truths told in Ulster’s team meeting on Tuesday morning. Having been given Monday off following their record European defeat of the professional era to Toulouse a day prior, there were some frustrated figures when they reconvened at Ravenhill.
There was a lot to digest. From the nine tries conceded, the string of errors that gave Toulouse the platform from which to play and the fact that Ulster ultimately didn’t take anything from the game, there was little for the province to hang their hat on.
But then, as with every challenge Ulster will face this season, there is mitigation to be applied in that they are not expected to win these games. Against the world class squad Toulouse selected, Ulster fielded four European debutants and left all of their Irish internationals on the bench — getting a result would have ranked up there with one of the best in the club’s history.
So when the gauntlet was laid down in the team meeting, it was not one of outrage at what had gone before. Rather, it was in a bid to ensure that this team continues to push themselves towards what potentially lies ahead of them.
Toulouse’s Emmanuel Meafou celebrates scoring a try against Ulster with Antoine Dupont
They have just seen up close and personal the standard they need to reach and this week they get a chance to prove they have taken their learnings from it when they face another team that should be vying for European glory at the end of the season in Bordeaux Begles, who are second only to, you guessed it, Toulouse in the Top14.
“I know this sounds ridiculous given the scoreline but, if you look at some of the things at the weekend like the maul defence and scrum, there’s some things that have been creaking a little bit and some of the young guys took a big step forward against Toulouse,” claimed assistant coach Dan Soper.
“The problem when you play a team like Toulouse or Bordeaux, they keep asking those questions relentlessly for 80 minutes. You may get it right three or four times but they keep asking them six or seven times and that’s the thing at the top, it’s about being on it for 80 minutes.
“As a young player, having that ability to stay in the moment over and over is the real learning. We’re seeing them do that and no doubt they’ll keep getting better and better.
“This week it’s about can we be better in every moment of the game and, you know what? We probably won’t be, because only the top teams do that and we’re not there.
“We would hope to see an improvement on where we were last week.”
That improvement lies in Ulster getting back to where they believe they should be as a team. For everything that is said about how good Toulouse were at the weekend — some of their handling was exceptional in wet conditions — there has been an introspective applied towards Saturday’s second pool game rather than focusing more on what Bordeaux will be bringing to Belfast.
“We’ve looked at some things and one thing we’ve looked at this week in particular is how much of our week do we spend saying, ‘This is Toulouse, they do this well, they do that well and let’s be wary of this’, and forget to go, ‘This is us, this is what we’re going to do’,” admitted Soper.
“We’ve had a bit of a look at Bordeaux this morning but we’re trying to keep the focus on us and had a look at what we didn’t do well at the weekend and what we were in control of doing better. That’s been a lot of our focus.”
Dan Soper is focusing on the positives for Ulster
It’s a bad week in the back three for Ulster, not only because Ben Moxham has been ruled out for nine months with the second ACL injury of his career, but they have also seen winger Aaron Sexton depart the province to pursue a career in the NFL via the International Player Pathway.
“Firstly, it’s a brilliant opportunity for Aaron. As sorry as we are to see him go, you can’t deny it’s a hell of an opportunity,” conceded Soper.
“I don’t know if it’s something we need to worry about, that suddenly in the US they don’t have enough athletes to fill all their spots so they start coming to Ireland and picking up the best of what we’ve got!
“It’s a brilliant opportunity, there’s been a sprinkling of them over the years and I would imagine that will continue. It’s not something we’re worried about, there being an exodus to the NFL.”