What can you say about this latest loss?
The key phrases of poor discipline undermining the team over in Treviso were of course trotted out and, indeed, it did have an impact which contributed greatly to sinking Ulster again.
Seventeen penalties and three yellow cards cannot be smoke-screened as anything other than ruinous in a 2024/25 season already potholed by poor outcomes and now with little indication of this situation improving going forward.
Aidan Morgan at least offered a message to the long-suffering supporters whose loyalty is, once again, being put to the test by a team seemingly being consumed by an inability to win games and credibly function as a unit.
Ulster’s Aidan Morgan looks to retain possession under pressure from Tomas Albornoz of Benetton
Losing at Benetton and allowing the Italians to win only their fifth League game of the campaign, while the hosts also took a bonus point as well, was as bad as it seemed and not made any more palatable by the surrender of a 19-10 lead and failure to score a single point throughout the second-half.
But back to Morgan and his offering to those following the team.
“Thanks for the support as always,” said the 23-year-old Irish-qualified Kiwi, who is in his first season at Ravenhill.
“I know it is probably tough times to stick with us, but we’re working hard and I’m sure we’ll come through.
“We’ll come through the other side soon, so stay with us and we always value your support.”
Ulster’s Aidan Morgan and Stuart McCloskey run out ahead of their side’s clash with Benetton
And as for the players having to absorb yet another reverse, a second successive failure to see off Italian opponents as well just to rub further salt into raw wounds, Morgan could only offer the observation that the squad is intent on getting through these deeply challenging moments even if they seem to be coming thick and fast these days.
As Morgan pointed out: “Everyone is massively disappointed, and that has been the tale of the season so far.
“We are looking to stay tight as a group and we’ll reflect on the result and we’ll move forward as a group.”
Not an easy one for any of the players to explain, and especially so with Ulster having their strongest-looking side out for the first time in a while in terms of several of the starting side from Saturday evening.
Benetton players celebrate following their United Rugby Championship victory over Ulster in Treviso
“A really tough result, we felt we scrambled quite well in the first-half and were hanging in there,” said Morgan of his side’s 19-17 lead at the midway point.
“Our discipline let us down and we put ourselves under too much pressure, and we fell victim to self-inflicted wounds in the end.
“We put together some good stuff in the first-half, but we also allowed them through penalties and our own mistakes to get into our ‘22’, and they capitalised with a couple of tries.
“The same result happened in the second-half when our discipline let us down, allowing easy entries for them which ended in points, and we weren’t able to score points to keep in the match.”
Skipper Alan O’Connor also fronted up after what was only the 32-year-old lock’s sixth start of the campaign.
“Our discipline really let us down in the second-half and we didn’t play into the right areas,” he said.
“I thought we drained ourselves quite a bit and we gave them too much access into the game through our ill-discipline, our errors, and Benetton at home, they’ll take those opportunities all day.”
Benetton and Ulster players engage in a maul during the sides’ United Rugby Championship encounter
The yellow cards were also up for discussion, and O’Connor lamented Ulster’s game-management during the second-half when David McCann, Nick Timoney and Stewart Moore were all binned – the latter two overlapping.
“How we play the game with 14 men and with 13 men, we could have adapted a bit better to that,” he admitted.
“It’s definitely something we have to address.”
The 2024/25 season now feels more like a wholesale rescue mission than just requiring tweaks.