Ulster earned a losing bonus point away to the Stormers last weekend in a performance that ran out of steam towards the end of the third quarter.
One point from ten won't sound like a great return, however, a trip to South Africa could be just what Ulster needed at this time of the year.
With a lot of changes going on at Ulster, interim coach, Richie Murphy, has been tasked with steadying the ship for the Northern province. You couldn’t pick a better time for an extended group to go away for ten days together to lay down some of the foundations and expectations for the rest of the season under a well-respected coach like Murphy.
Extra team activities, paired with longer travel time and the potential for an extra meeting or two would have come at the right time for any coach trying to put their stamp on a group.
The hard-earned point, though it sounds like little, came from a dominant opening half of rugby and has allowed Ulster to stay in the play-off positions in the league, returning home to a couple of 'so-called’ easier fixtures to claim some points and try to climb the league table.
Munster and Leinster will both travel to South Africa after the next round of the Champions Cup, whereas Ulster will be at home in the next two rounds against Cardiff and Benetton before travelling to Scarlets. I’m sure that they’ll be confident of getting at least two wins there, a full house could completely transform their season.
With respect to Ulster, they didn’t turn into a bad team overnight. They beat both Connacht and Leinster during the New Year’s interprovincial period, before falling foul to erratic inconsistencies in their performances.
The talent in Ulster is as good as any team and last weekend we saw sparks of confidence throughout. Doak took more responsibility at out-half, something that is reportedly expected of him next season with the loss of Billy Burns, and there were signs of good times between McCloskey, Balacoune and Hume. With Lowry, McIlroy, Moore and others, Ulster have enough potential to come back to life pretty quickly.
Their pack stood up firmly to the Stormers until the end of the third quarter as well. They battled for scrum penalties, turned over mauls and dominated collisions for most of the game. It was when their game management faltered slightly and bodies got tired that the Stormers made easier metres on the gain line.
Frustratingly for Murphy, Ulster had chances to extend their lead. Not scoring for 73 minutes will haunt them, but that included two uncharacteristic misses from the tee of John Cooney and a 76th minute lineout miss about 30 metres out which could have set them up for a late score, one of their only entries into the Stormers territory in the second half.
They’ll look back at last weekend with thoughts of what might have been, but also knowing that they’ve put down a strong performance in South Africa and laid the foundations within the group to push on for the last five league games.
There are a few younger gems within that Ulster pack, Harry Sheridan (above) the latest hybrid second row/number 6 that really impressed last weekend. Cormac Izuchukwu came on to steal an all-important lineout when Ulster were creaking on their own line too. They have plenty to work with all over the pitch.
When a new coach comes in, there’ll always be a reaction and I’d expect to see a lot more of that come to fruition in the next few weeks. Whether Ulster will go for it away from home against Montpellier is to be decided, but I suspect they will. Montpellier haven’t always respected the Champions Cup and they’re struggling in their domestic league, so it could be another opportunity for Ulster to build.
The non-skill tasks of playing rugby should be rock solid with the addition of Murphy, at least in the short term. In a contact sport like rugby, there are some easy wins with aspects of the game that require no talent. Work rate, measured objectively through GPS and heart rate monitors, is one of the easiest wins for both the players and the coach.
The contact area is often an area that can be improved with a strong mindset, whether the system is the best or not. If players want to impress, they can focus on committing to tackles and second efforts around the breakdown, like Sheridan did last weekend.
Kick chase, resetting early in defence and attack and repeated high intensity efforts are some of the areas that Ulster can focus on to nail the basics within their new set up before they ever go after technical wins within their game plan.
Richie Murphy has worked within Leinster and the Irish senior set up before taking control of the Irish under 20’s. We know that the Irish provinces are heavily influenced by the national team, so therefore Richie was the perfect person for this job.
There have been plenty of overseas coaches in the provinces over the last decade or so, but when a homegrown coach has shown the promise of Murphy, they should be rewarded and this could become a longer-term appointment for him if the next couple of weeks go to plan.
If rumours are anything to go by, the atmosphere had become difficult in Ulster. And the word is that Richie Murphy is a great people-person and man-manager. The time was right for him to get his hands on the talent in Ulster and bring them back to a club that should be challenging for honours.
Despite the changes happening in Ulster behind the scenes, there’s plenty of opportunity for them on the field. South Africa might have paved the way, but the next few games will determine their success.
