Ulster led Leinster by 10 points at half-time in Friday night’s inter-provincial derby at the Aviva Stadium, but were denied a famous victory
Ulster came within five minutes of taking a notable scalp at the Aviva, unable to cling on to a ten point half-time lead and losing out by four points, 24-20.
Coach Richie Murphy talked of how winning games is about winning against your opposite number, posting better figures than the opponent.
And there were a number of significant areas where his side prospered, their first-half front-five prompting Leinster to spring four Ireland regulars from the bench three minutes after the break.
Scrum-half Nathan Doak put in assured performance, Jack Murphy often looked the more polished tactical out-half while the three-quarter defence was outstanding.
“I don’t know really whether we spooked them or not, especially in the first half I thought we came forward well at times and got up into the pass channels,” said Murphy afterwards.
The Leinster attack at the moment is very much ‘batter the door down’ so if you’re physically fit enough and able to survive that you can get yourself into a really good position against them. “We probably couldn’t quite do that for the 80 minutes and in the second half, they definitely got on top in that area.”
Ulster having led for so long were entitled to think it was a result that got away, not least as a David McCann sin-bin saw them trying to hold their three point lead with 14 men at the close.
“I thought we played some really good rugby in the first half and obviously get out to a lead, and there were a couple of crucial moments in the second half.
“Rob Baloucoune just can’t quite get the ball away with a two-man overlap down around the outside and there’s one then where we throw it on the ground off a five-man.
“Two great opportunities to sort of go deep into Leinster’s 22 and possibly score.
“We went away a little bit from what we were doing in the first half and we didn’t look after the ball well enough in that second half. Discipline a little bit hurt us as well throughout the game.”
Ulster bagged a match point, the bonus-point for losing by less than seven – enough to keep them a point ahead of Leinster in the table.
“It’s really important that we stay focused, that the disappointment of this doesn’t bring us away from the things that we’ve done really well. We’ll go back and try and rebuild them for next week.”
