Cautious Kiss keeping Ulster focus on return battle with Harlequins
A great try by Jacob Stockdale plus 12 points from the boot of scrum-half John Cooney, saw the province pick up a win on English soil for the first time in three years (5-17).
Victory puts Ulster back in the hunt for a last eight spot in Europe but Kiss insists such thoughts are for another day and the full focus of the squad must turn to Friday night’s rematch in Kingspan Stadium
Kiss told ulsterrugby.com: “We’ve got to go and do it again. The boys know how to win, we’ve just got to make sure that we package this the right way and deliver again. It’s a short turnaround for both teams, but it’s in our lap now to be able to do something. We’re not kidding ourselves. If we want to be something in May, it’s what we do now that is the important thing. Sometimes it’s winning in the last minute, sometimes it’s overcoming an injury rate that challenges the depth of your squad, sometimes it’s other things.
“You have to stand up. Around the positives, there are still some real challenges, but the attitude and the ethos of the boys is strong.”
And Kiss hopes that the weekend showing is a turn in the road for a side that has struggled to maintain a decent run of form in recent weeks.
“Sometimes you’re not nailing everything as you’d like to. It’s such a simple thing from the outside to look at one or two things.
“We are doing the things internally to build something. Not everything is perfect but this team, they’re focussed, there was an opportunity for growth there and they took it. They know what we’re doing, they know what matters and they believe in what we’re doing. They’re building.”
Kiss was pleased with the powerful performance delivered by his pack, along with some excellent game management by Cooney.
“It’s important that the big players stand up for you. The way John Cooney handled that game was brilliant; he wasn’t perfect, but he did some important things.
“I thought the forwards were immense. Their defence of the maul, their defence in general was brilliant and they certainly laid a platform for us to do some smarter things around the edges and get the job done.
“Iain Henderson was immense in his leadership. Rob Herring was immense underneath Hendy. Ross Kane came on and did a great job, Andy Warwick too, and I thought Chris Henry just showed the warrior that he is. That gave us a lift and I was really impressed with what the pack did.
“The front row battle was compelling in its own way and I thought our scrum did exceptionally well. It was brilliant actually. You like to see rugby with a bit of style but we’re trying to build a bit of substance to our game in how we tough things out.”
