Ulster 24-48 Toulouse: Dan McFarland 'felt' for Ulster players against 'outstanding' French side
- Published
McFarland's side's knockout hopes will be determined by next week's trip to Harlequins
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland admitted he "felt" for his players during a humbling Investec Champions Cup defeat by Toulouse.
After three straight wins, Ulster were outplayed by the five-time champions, who scored seven tries in a resounding 48-24 Pool 2 success in Belfast.
It means Ulster's knockout hopes hinge on next week's trip to Harlequins, who thumped Cardiff on Saturday.
"That was really tough," admitted McFarland.
"I felt for our guys, I thought a lot of effort went into that, into the preparation. They certainly left everything out there and we faced a Toulouse team that are outstanding in my view.
"They're very difficult to play against. Do I think we made it easy for ourselves? No, there were points in the game were we made a few errors and the difference was the fact that they were very much good enough to capitalise on those immediately.
"Also their physical presence in the game, around the set-piece and some of the collisions."
On their last visit to Kingspan Stadium two years ago, Toulouse won 30-23 to snatch a one-point aggregate win in the last 16.
But despite having been buoyed by wins over Racing, Connacht and Leinster, Ulster were never close to avenging that heartbreaking loss in 2022 on a night when Toulouse again offered compelling evidence that they are ready to take the European crown off their Top 14 rivals La Rochelle.
While France star Thomas Ramos deserves mention as one of the chief architects of Toulouse's irresistible display, Antoine Dupont again stole the headlines with two tries and a performance in which he inevitably placed himself at the heart of his side's attack.
Toulouse have scored 147 points across their three pool fixtures, but McFarland believes a top-drawer Ulster performance would still be a match for them.
"I'd like to think that if we were at our best we'd give ourselves a fighting chance," he commented.
"I don't think we were but we knew how good they were going to be. They put 45 points past Lyon last week with none in return and 50-odd points on Harlequins.
"They're very difficult to deal with."
Dupont scored two tries and was constantly involved in his side's attacks in another glittering display
Having been blown away by a wave of deadly attacks by the men in red to trail by 31 points early in the second half, Ulster's hopes of claiming two bonus points were boosted by tries from Will Addison and Nick Timoney.
But instead of further denting the Toulouse defence, the visitors wrapped up proceedings with their seventh try to ensure Ulster got nothing out of the contest.
That, for McFarland, was particularly difficult to swallow.
"That was probably the most disappointing aspect. With 10 minutes to go, we got ourselves in with a line-out close to their line and we malfunctioned at two set-pieces in a row.
"Albeit against a good team but both of those we'd probably say were within our control and to not come away with a bonus point after putting ourselves in that position was probably the most disappointing thing."
Ulster sit fourth in Pool 2 with five points from three matches with only the top four going through to the last 16.
With improvements needed for next week's crunch trip to Harlequins, the pressure is on Ulster as they bid to reach the Champions Cup knockout rounds for the fifth time in a row.
In terms of improvements, back row Nick Timoney - who scored Ulster's third try on Saturday - says they must work on their transition while admitting that they "fed into" the "chaos" caused by Toulouse.
"We got done with a couple of turnovers and they shifted," said Timoney.
"There were a few tries from all sorts of stuff as there is against Toulouse and they're just dangerous in that chaos and maybe we there were times when we fed into that chaos a bit.
"It felt like they had a try here and there from all sorts of different areas."
Timoney, who also scored two tries against Leinster on New Year's Day, added: "A lot of the teams, we make some of the mistakes that we made today and nothing comes off most of them.
"But a team like that [Toulouse], they get half a chance and they have no fear with throwing the ball or offloading or playing to the space instantly.
"They hurt you more than a lot of teams do. We obviously knew that and should've done better. I don't think it was an emotion thing, with rugby you just have to go out and do every areas as well as you can.
"Sometimes some areas let you down and there were a couple of them today."