McGahan praises charges for ‘excellent effort’

TO judge by the post-match body language at Ravenhill on Saturday night, one would have been excused for believing it was Munster who had emerged with the main share of the Magners League spoils.

Instead, Ulster prevailed by 15-10 but they did so against a much weakened Munster pack and were very nearly caught when forced to defend a close range line-out. So coach Tony McGahan was in high spirits in the immediate aftermath, further boosted by the losing bonus point that helps them stay within touching distance of the leaders.

“Without a doubt I thought our effort was excellent to come up here against a full strength Ulster side,” said the Aussie. “Apart from the first ten minutes when we gave up a couple of soft tries, the effort and application was excellent. I thought we worked hard enough to put ourselves in but, again, execution let us down on a few occasions and we came up short at the end.”