Duane Vermeulen: Ulster coach Dan McFarland delight as win over Zebre follows new signing's starring role for Springboks
- Published
Vermeulen will join the Ulster squad later in the autumn
Ulster coach Dan McFarland was a very contented man after his side's 36-3 away win over Zebre on Saturday had followed Duane Vermeulen starring in South Africa's win over New Zealand.
McFarland let slip several giggles as he spoke about Vermeulen's crucial role in the Springboks' 31-29 victory.
"What about that in arguably the biggest match you can get in the [inter]national calendar - South Africa against New Zealand," he said.
"He was pretty impressive wasn't he."
McFarland added: "He makes the two biggest plays in the last five minutes of the game that turn it in the Springboks' favour."
But while McFarland was struggling to contain his excitement as he looks forward to the arrival next month of the South African back row, he was also hugely satisfied with his team's display in Parma against a Zebre side who had been looking to produce a big performance to mark the death of their popular media and marketing manager Leonardo Mussini.
"I'm really pleased with the result. When you put into context the emotional way that Zebre approached the game and naturally, they lost somebody that was very dear to them during the week so the game had a lot of meaning for them."
Highlights: Six-try Ulster ease to victory in Italy
Zebre frustrate Ulster early on
Zebre tried manfully to frustrate Ulster in the first half as their talented young scrum-half Alessandro Fusco made a particular nuisance of himself and the likes of Tommaso Boni produced big midfield hits on the Irish province.
But after being held scoreless over the opening quarter, Ethan McIlroy's try put Ulster ahead and the wing repeated the dose in first-half injury-time as the impressive James Hume's clever pass sent him in for a second touchdown which must have deflated the Italians following their earlier efforts.
"That was a really tough first half for us to weather. We were hoping our set piece would get on top of them in that first half and they held us really really well," added McFarland.
"[But] our set piece in the third quarter really got on top of them and that sort of changed the game. So to come away with six tries and not let in a try was a big achievement."
McFarland accepted that his young team - which had 10 changes from last weekend's opening win over Glasgow amid an injury crisis which suddenly reared up - had not produced a perfect display but he insisted that the positives far outweighed the negatives.
"What do you want me to say? Can we get better? Of course we can. Did I think some of those great fellows put in a great shift against a team that scored 26 points last week in the space of 40 minutes and we held them to no tries? I'm really pleased with that.
"Second game of the year. Was there some disjointed stuff? If you want that answer, yes."
Craig Gilroy's impressive display after his call up included setting up Will Addison's try
McFarland praises Gilroy's work ethic
With John Cooney, Robert Baloucoune, Stuart McCloskey joining Iain Henderson among the Ireland internationals ruled out of Saturday's United Rugby Championship game, McFarland admitted that the injuries were "obviously a concern".
"Going into that first week, we had real selection headaches in terms of so many people being available.
"Buses don't come for ages and then three come at once. That's what has happened to us this week."
The "positive" from this week's unexpected scenario is the opportunity it gave youngsters such as Nathan Doak, who made his full debut in Parma, Stewart Moore and David McCann to get more game time against a fired-up Zebre.
The enforced changes also enabled wing Craig Gilroy to show his continuing worth to Ulster as he set up Will Addison's try with a delightful pop pass and contributed a lot more besides.
"Craig obviously has the stardust that we all know about but one of the things people don't notice is the amount of things he does off the ball," added the Ulster coach.
"He's one of our hardest working wingers around the pitch both attack and defence. He'll work all day because he's so fit.
"He's such a positive influence around the squad as well. I was pleased he had a good game today."