Murphy 'loved' Ulster performance despite Munster loss

Murphy guided Ulster into the play-offs and next season's Champions Cup after arriving in March

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy praised the performance of his players despite a 29-24 loss to Munster at Thomond Park on Saturday.

Already dealing with a series of injuries to key players, Ulster lost Stuart McCloskey and Ethan McIlroy from their starting side just before kick-off, while locks Kieran Treadwell and Alan O'Connor both had to be replaced in the opening quarter.

Still, the visitors had a 17-7 advantage at half-time, and led from the eighth until the 69th minute of the game, before Munster's more powerful bench turned the tide and sealed top spot in the table for the hosts.

"I loved my team's performance - I thought they were brilliant," said Murphy.

"To come down here, they went after Munster from the word go.

"They stuck in the game, we lost our way a bit in the second half, we just lost control of the ball.

"There were a couple of decisions that didn't go our way and Munster just got back on top. The hometown sort of feel probably just barely got them over the line."

Ulster's losing bonus point saw them finish sixth in the URC table, setting up a quarter-final away to Leinster next week and ensuring they will play Champions Cup rugby in 2024/25.

Given results elsewhere, the loss was of little consequence in the standings - Ulster could finish no higher than sixth, with the only difference between victory and defeat that they go to Dublin rather than Glasgow next week, but Murphy was disappointed to see the end of his side's four-game winning run.

"We didn't come to get in the Champions Cup, we came to beat Munster," he added.

"Performances are great but at this level you have to win games. We would have loved to come down here and be going into that [play-off] game next week on the back of a win.

"Obviously we haven't done that but we're at a very early stage of our journey. The great thing is the signs of how we're going to be. We're becoming a team that's hard to play against and one that looks after the ball much better than we were doing a couple of weeks back."

Ulster led 17-7 at half time in the interprovincial encounter

After a largely positive performance in defeat and finishing the season strongly, Ulster will at least go into the play-offs with some long sought momentum.

Munster showed last season that it is possible to win the URC when having to go away from home through the knockouts. Murphy, though, is unwilling to look beyond a Leinster team Ulster beat twice during the regular season.

"Concentrating on trying to win a game, the game that's in front of our face," he said of his team's approach.

"We go week to week and this week was Munster. We've prepared the best we can to beat Munster. Next week we prepare the best we can to beat Leinster.

"If we beat Leinster, we move on, but we don't go crystal balling. We're very process driven, we try and get our bits right every week and the knock-on effect of that is hopefully a win on the weekend."