Ulster Rugby will be looking to get Belfast bouncing again when they head into a “huge” Irish derby against Munster Rugby this weekend.
Richie Murphy’s team haven’t won any of their last five home games in the Vodacom URC. Indeed, you have to go back to January to find their last league victory at the Affidea Stadium.
The motivation to halt that barren run in the competition will be driving them on when they entertain Munster in Saturday’s inter-provincial clash.
They will go into the game buoyed by their performance against Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun where they defied the pre-match predictions to secure a 33-33 draw.
Looking ahead to this weekend, coach Murphy said: “Munster is huge. Our record at home over the last number of games hasn’t been good enough for us.
“There’s been reasons in relation to team selection and things, but we need to right that. We’re really looking forward to it.”
It was a hugely eventful encounter in Glasgow on Saturday evening amid 10 tries, five yellow cards and a nail-biting finale.
Having built a 26-14 lead, Ulster were reduced to 13 men midway through the second half after picking up two yellows in quick succession and conceded three tries to fall behind.
After drawing level through a Juarno Augustus touchdown, it was then their turn to have a two man advantage for the final eight minutes following a further flurry of cards, but they were unable to conjure up the decisive score.
“It was a crazy game really,” said Murphy.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the lads. I thought they were immense.
“No-one really gave us a chance going over there. The handicap was huge. I think one per cent of people believed we could win.
“The big thing we talked about all week was just getting our attitude right. Emotionally, you have to be ready to play.
“The way the lads moved the ball, their bravery in coming away to a place like that, going up against a really good side and just trying to put our game on top of them, I thought we did that really well.
“We played some really nice pieces and scored some good tries. I thought we should have won the game.
“We were probably a little bit disappointed because we had the chances to win near the end and we weren’t quite good enough.
“So it was a little bit bittersweet, but three points away from home is good.
“We are reasonably happy. We have five points from the first two games and we will just move on.”
Ulster skipper Tom Stewart was pleased with the way the team responded to their home defeat at the hands of Edinburgh Rugby in Round One of the Vodacom URC.
“We definitely had to have a reaction from that,” said the hooker.
“I was incredibly proud of the boys’ effort.
“You have to be brave when you go over to Glasgow. You can’t take a backward step.
“We just had to keep backing ourselves and keep playing rugby. We had to keep going and take it to them.
“For us, it might feel like one that got away, but we’ll take our learnings into next weekend against Munster and hopefully we can kick on.”
Scrum-half Nathan Doak added: “We went over to win the game. That was our mindset and I think you could see that from the way we played. We wanted to attack every moment of the game.
“We were going to leave it all out there and try to go home with four or five points. We took three in the end.
“We had a couple of chances to win the game, but unfortunately we didn’t do that, so we were disappointed.
“But it was a good outing for us coming off the back of the week before.”
Moxie
Alec Stewart was born on 8/4/63, and the number of test runs that he scored in his career was 8,463.
Dakota Bliss
Although the New Zealand All Blacks are considered one of the best rugby teams in history, it is the USA that holds the title of reigning Olympic champions in rugby. The United States won the gold medal for rugby in the 1924 Olympics, and the sport has not been played in the Olympics since.