Murphy hails Ulster's 'bravery' after taking three points from Glasgow draw

ULSTER HEAD COACH Richie Murphy praised his side for their bravery in an “immense” display against Glasgow despite admitting to some disappointment at falling short of a rare victory at Scotstoun.

The Belfast outfit surged into a 12-point lead early in the second half before two yellow cards derailed them, allowing Warriors to run in three quick fire tries and move 33-26 clear.

But the momentum flipped again when Glasgow were reduced to 13 themselves with eight minutes left. Ulster drew level with a converted try from Juarno Augustus in the 73rd minute, but couldn’t make their two-man advantage count and manufacture a winning score.

“It was a crazy game really,” Murphy said. “I thought early in the second half we were in complete control but obviously getting the two yellow cards, it changed our mindset as well and made it a bit more difficult for us to go forward.

“We were quite comfortable in D [defence] for a lot of the game which was nice, but when Glasgow get their tails up, it becomes very difficult.

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“We’re probably a little bit disappointed in the end because we had the chances to win it, but three points away from home is good.

“The way the lads moved the ball, their bravery coming to a place like this and going up against a really good side, just trying to put our game on top of them, I thought we did that really well.”

After the setback of last week’s opening home loss to Edinburgh, Ulster took three points back to Belfast after scoring five tries, two of them created by superb offloads from Player of the Match Ethan McIlroy.

Murphy took further solace from the way his side negated Glasgow’s powerful lineout maul, stealing four of the Warriors’ throws.

“We put a big emphasis on our set-piece,” he said. “Last year we probably felt our set-piece wasn’t strong enough; we were in the bottom third in relation to all the stats in the league.

“So bringing [forwards coach] Clark Dermody in and going after guys like Eduardo Bello, Keynan Knox and Eli Snyman to add some experience to our front-five players – we’re very young and inexperienced in that area, so those guys have made a big difference.

“The big thing we talked about all week was just getting our attitude right. You look at the technical side of the game and we said we can be better in these areas, but emotionally, you have to be ready to play.

“I couldn’t have asked more from the lads tonight. I thought they were immense. At the back end of the game, if we had kept our shape quality as good as probably it has been over the pre-season and even last week, I think we would have been in a really good place.

“But no-one really gave us a chance coming over here tonight. I looked at the odds and the handicap was huge. I think 1% of people believed that we could win coming over here. We are reasonably happy with five points from the first two games. We will just move on.”

Ulster return home to face Munster at the Affidea Stadium next Saturday.