Les Kiss praised his Ulster troops' heart and desire after a gritty St Stephen's Day derby triumph over Connacht.
Nick Williams' 76th-minute try ended Connacht's unbeaten home record this season as the visitors plundered an attritional 10-3 derby win at the Sportsground.
Kiss admitted the quality didn't always match the effort on show, but was thrilled to take away a victory that lifted them to third in the table.
"We didn’t expect this to be easy and it wasn’t but it’s nice to come out the other side with the win," Kiss told RTÉ Sport.
"I thought the defence was very good. At times we gave them a bit of access in the wide channels but overall our work ethos was vital.
"It was a game where both sides had ambition and intent, but both were guilty of their skills not matching that ambition. Nick Williams is a great rugby player. He’s got a lot of heart and soul."
Munster visit the Kingspan Stadium on 2 January, and Kiss is braced for another bruising encounter.
"Munster is going to be a torrid affair," he said. "They beat us last time; we know that they’re a team that are probably hurting at the moment and want to get a result – hopefully they get that result against Leinster and we haven't got a dangerous beast the following week!"
Connacht coach Pat Lam was left to rue his side's missed chance as he urged them to learn from costly mistakes.
"I can't fault the boys' effort," Lam said afterwards. "In these games you only get a few chances. We created a few, we just didn't take them.
"There’s some big lessons there. It was a magnificent performance [in terms of] defence and work rate off the ball, but there was obviously some key moments in that last 10, 15 minutes when at 3-3 we needed to be at the right end of the pitch.
"We were but they turned us over and squeezed us and squeezed us and rumbled over for a try. The boys didn’t go down without a fight. It was a great game for their rugby education, going forward."
