Ulster head coach Dan McFarland has said that his side can learn from the pain of their record defeat to Munster on Saturday and that he is hopeful that Ireland internationals Rory Best and Jacob Stockdale will both make their return for the province’s game with Connacht this Friday.
Ulster conceded nine tries to one in a 64-7 defeat at Thomond Park in what was the club’s worst loss since their 56-3 drubbing to Wasps in 1997, the previous record.
McFarland’s side entered the match with an undefeated record with three wins and a draw through four matches this season but lost Marcell Coetzee (shoulder), Wiehahn Herbst (groin), Rob Herring (toe), Sean Reidy (hamstring) and Henry Speight (knee) prior to Saturday’s match while they were already without Peter Browne (concussion), David Busby (knee), Louis Ludik (hamstring), Chris Henry (calf), Jacob Stockdale (hamstring), Rory Best (hamstring) Rob Lyttle (knee), Luke Marshall (knee), Kyle McCall (elbow), Marty Moore (calf), Jordi Murphy (ankle), Tommy O’Hagan (foot) and Jack Owens (concussion).
The extended injury list was compounded by the first-half losses of Iain Henderson (head) and John Cooney (blood) and followed just a five day turnaround from a two-game tour of South Africa where the squad had just one rest day from travel and training.
Munster ran riot against a depleted Ulster and had wrapped up the four-try bonus point before half-time but McFarland is hoping that Ireland captain Rory Best and winger Stockdale will return to full fitness this week and insists that this was a good test for a largely inexperienced side with eight of Ulster’s 23 players boasting less than 10 professional caps.
“I thought we put in a couple of good defensive sets to start with but we then suffered a pretty unlucky ricochet which resulted in seven points, we then missed a tackle which is very unlike us which put us down 14 points and we then lost John Cooney and Iain Henderson and we were then under the cosh.”
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Ulster were trailing 22-0 before the loss of Cooney in the 34th minute and it quickly started to unravel from there with Munster centre Dan Goggin running in the bonus point try four minutes later before the hosts buried the northern province in the second-half.
McFarland lamented the conditions Ulster entered the game, a point Munster head coach Johann van Graan also highlighted in his press conference after his side endured similar difficulties returning from South Africa before their Champions Cup semi-final with Racing last season.
“It’s an interesting one. We’ll have to talk about that as a staff but I certainly think the five day turnaround we were subjected to in South Africa had an impact,” the former Glasgow coach added.
“We came off the back of that game with five injuries off the back of that game and at the end of the match we had to go from sea level to altitude with a 10 hour travel on the Monday post-game from the Sunday.
“When we scored our second last try out there, there were four or five fellas lying on the ground receiving treatment. The heart and the fight the fellas showed out there was terrific but it comes with a cost. But I’m not going to put that down to 60 points. I’m not doing that.”
McFarland also praised the effort of his side and insisted that his side’s downfall had nothing to with a lack of fight and that Thomond Park is a very difficult place to play when Munster feel they have something to play for.
“It was a good test. It was a good challenge. A lot of fellas will be feeling a lot of pain now, including me. Pain is good, you learn from pain.”
He continued: “There’s no questioning the effort. You’ve got young fellas out there and you’re asking them to go out and play against a team…. I was here the week when Anthony [Foley] died with Glasgow and when there’s meaning and importance in a game against Munster in Thomond Park and you get put on the back foot that’s a difficult place to be and that’s where we found ourselves.
“We needed to be on the front foot the whole time and we weren’t.”
Ulster will return to Belfast to play Connacht on Friday while Munster will head to Dublin to take on defending champions Leinster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
