One of those things, really; the Player of the Match award being handed out to Scott Wilson just before Cormac Izuchukwu surged through for his hat-trick try.
Not that Wilson was an undeserving recipient; it was just that it all felt a bit awkward in that a forward who contributed 15 points to the total would be overlooked for an accolade.
Mind you, Wilson certainly did play well, carrying hard into contact 10 times and contributing 14 tackles and a turnover.
He was also credited with winning the scrum penalty which led to Rob Herring’s second-half try, a score which put Ulster on the front foot and kept them there, a vital development after such a challenging opening half.
In the forwards, only Izuchukwu, David McCann and James McNabney carried more, and no one throughout the entire team was credited with as many tackles as Wilson.
Some game, then, not that the 22-year-old tighthead prop was going to bask much, if at all, in the recognition that had just come his way.
“I’d say Izzy (Cormac Izuchukwu) will give me a bit of a touch on Monday about that,” he dryly observed.
“Man of the Match awards aren’t why you are playing the game; you’re playing for the love of the game and club.
“The win means way more than the medal.”
The significance of ultimately swatting Exeter Chiefs aside certainly wasn’t lost on Wilson as achieving any form of knock-out rugby represents a KPI for any club, and though they had put a shadow team to the sword, the job had been done, and done well, albeit thanks to a powerful second-half.
“Knock-out rugby is the rugby you want to be playing in, whether that’s Challenge Cup or Champions Cup or League knock-out rugby,” he stated.
“It’s the pinnacle of the season and what you build yourself up for, so it’s massive for the club.”
Yes, and that result was also important as Ulster have now won just five games from 13 outings in all competitions in the 2024/25 season, so as Wilson mentioned, getting that taste back is really the thing – along with driving on for more from this point.
Once again, though, he points out that the process he is part of translates into rapidly moving forward to the next target, which happens to be hosting Zebre in the URC on Sunday.
Wilson said: “We do a lot of our reviews on Monday, a lot of the stuff comes out and in team units and that’s it all said, and when you come back on Tuesday, you’re focused on yourself and the next team.
“We can’t get caught up week on week thinking about the previous results, we need to park that and move on, focus on ourselves and the team we’re playing next.”
All fine, though there is still time to assess how the pool stages of the Champions Cup have gone, Ulster leaving it to their final game to change a narrative which had brought them three heavy reverses prior to Friday evening at Ravenhill.
“(At) Toulouse, we didn’t show up and it was a disappointing game, Bordeaux we were in it at 60 (minutes) and that was the game where we needed to turn it on and stay consistent, and then Leicester was something similar; a good first-half and then didn’t come out with the same attitude in the second-half,” said Wilson, echoing a standard mantra already put out there by coaches and team-mates.
“And that’s what we spoke about this week, it was 17-all at half-time (against the Chiefs), we felt we were the dominant team and we knew we needed to come out firing shots in the second-half and I think that’s what we did.
“I feel like recently, we’ve been more like a 60-minute team where we’ve been in the game but then the games have got away from us, so to go the opposite way and take it up a level and score four tries really quickly was pleasing to see and, hopefully, we can take confidence in that into the next League games.”
This has hardly been a vintage season from Ulster, even though Wilson, who made his breakthrough to the senior side in the previous campaign, is going from strength to strength, which could be very beneficial for the province if, as those in the Ireland set-up seem to think, the currently banned Tom O’Toole is going to morph into a loosehead.
“We’ve had a tough season,” Wilson admitted.
“Whether that’s been down to injuries or inconsistencies or what, it is hard to put a point to it, but building on it with Zebre next Sunday then the Scarlets and then Benetton, these are three (URC) games we want to go after and build on from this performance.”
When it comes to his own progress he added: “I’m enjoying it and getting more minutes than last year.
“I feel like the more game-time you get, the more time in the saddle you get, the more confidence you have.
“(In matches) I sort of try and get my hands on the ball or a solid first scrum as early in the game as possible, and I feel the rest takes after itself.”
So far, he’s going pretty well.