Hard Work Ahead For Murphy And Ulster To ‘Close The Gap’

Murphy’s men bowed out of the race for the BKT United Rugby Championship play-offs at Munster last week, and they lost 47-17 to a quarter-final-bound Edinburgh in the Scottish capital to make it five defeats in a row.

When they review the year as a whole, there will be frustration at a number of results which could have gone the other way. Five of their URC losses were by seven points or less, having a significant impact on a team that finished 10 points outside of the top eight.

Ulster  lost their grip on a 19-point half-time lead at Cardiff, going down by two points in the end, and finished seven and three points behind provincial rivals Leinster and Munster respectively.

It was the minimum margin at home to Zebre Parma, and the Hollywoodbets Sharks pipped them by three points in Belfast last month.

A penalty try, coupled with Darcy Graham’s sin-binning and a subsequent Werner Kok score, brought Ulster level with Edinburgh by the half hour mark, but they struggled again in the second half – a repeated failing this season – and turnovers proved very costly.

“I think we need to look really hard at ourselves and find the gaps that are in our game at the moment,” said Murphy, who has new backs coach Mark Sexton and defence and contact skills coach Willie Faloon coming on board for next season.

“We need to front up to them and build a plan around how we close that gap between us and some of the teams at the top end of the league.

“It feels now like we’re a long way off the top eight, but in reality, a couple of games early on in the season, if we could have turned them around, it would have given us a really good chance of finishing off in a better position than we are.

“Ultimately, we have to own our performances. Twenty-plus turnovers this week, 18-plus last week (against Munster). It’s very hard to win games when you’re giving the opposition the ball that many times.”

It was a disappointing way for stalwart forwards Andrew Warwick and Kieran Treadwell to bow out. The pair are both leaving the province after making 391 appearances between them, and there are six other senior players departing Kingspan Stadium.

Regular top scorer John Cooney, Matthew Rea, and stand-in captain Alan O’Connor are among those, meaning there will be younger players having to take on more responsibility as Ulster bring some harsh lessons forward from this season.

Jude Postlethwaite’s tremendous try from inside his own 22 showed what Murphy’s young side are capable of. With Ireland’s summer tour coming up, there have been some strong individual performers in the Ulster camp, including a rejuvenated Jacob Stockdale who beat a league-high 62 defenders.

Dave McCann, Ulster’s Player of the Year in 2023/24, has led the way as their top ball carrier in this season’s URC, with fellow back rower Nick Timoney their top tackler, and Cormac Izuchukwu coming up with some important lineout steals.

When Ulster make the return trip to Edinburgh next term, Murphy wants them to be in much better fettle, saying: “There’s plenty to digest and we’ll come back here in our second game of next season and we’ve a lot of improvements to do before then.

“It’s a difficult ending to a difficult season for us. I thought there was loads of effort and endeavour from the lads (against Edinburgh), but the 20-plus turnovers put us in a very difficult position.

“I thought at times we defended our line very well, and I thought at times we just weren’t good enough in and around that contact area.”

The Bray native added: “The guys that are moving on, we wish them well. It’s not the way we wanted to finish. For the guys staying back, it is about the hard work that’s in front of us to close the gap.

“We scored three tries but weren’t quite capable of staying with Edinburgh, but let’s get into the summer, reassess what we’re doing and how we’re trying to do things, and come back stronger at the start of next season.”

Meanwhile, as Murphy’s rebuild continues into 2025/26, versatile forward Izuchukwu will be a crucial part of it. He made his Ireland debut against Fiji last November, and will be hoping to gain further Test experience during the upcoming tour to Georgia and Portugal.

Ulster’s sloppy performance at Hive Stadium was already gnawing at him in the aftermath, especially as they have no match next week to fix those errors. Missing out on the play-offs, and Champions Cup qualification, is a low point to finish on.

“We’re massively heartbroken. It was a pretty poor performance to give the lads who are leaving. They deserved so much better and not an ideal way to top off a tough season,” said Izuchukwu.

“It’s hurting massively. There are boys in there who have been playing for us for 10 years and going out and giving them that send-off hurts me too. It’s something we’ve got to live with.

“I thought we had moments in the game when we were good, but we found it hard putting those together and the game got away from us.”

Ulster’s back row of Izuchukwu, Timoney, and McCann played the full 80 minutes together and made 25 carries and 41 tackles (including five dominant tackles) between them.

A Magnus Bradbury-inspired Edinburgh outshone their visitors in a number of areas though, scoring 2.9 points per 22-metre entry (16 in all), and made more metres (533.3) from less carries (106) than Ulster, and made more line breaks (7) and beat more defenders (27).

However, Izuchukwu is confident that the Ulster young guns can get themselves back on an upward curve, adding: “The lesson today we take was just a loss. Hopefully next year we can use that to fuel us to kick on.

“I think for us, especially with having a squad that is so young, it’s just about having the appetite to turn up and give 110%.

“We don’t have massive depth now but hopefully next year we can keep blooding lads, keep building a squad, and keep moving forward.”