Anscombe criticises 'feeble' Ulster team

Ulster head coach Mark Anscombe wasn’t afraid to let his team know just how disappointed he was after their 20-14 defeat at the hands of Glasgow on Friday night.

After 11 straight Rabo PRO12 victories at the start of the season, Ulster have experienced a dip in form, losing three of their last four league encounters.

Friday night’s defeat was particularly disappointing for Anscombe as it allowed second place Glasgow close the gap on league leaders Ulster to just three points.

The northern province leaked four tries on an evening that saw Ulster playmaker Ruan Pienaar outplayed by Glasgow’s outstanding scrum-half Nikola Matawalu.

Reflecting on the performance Anscombe admitted his side liked any cutting edge in attack and were guilty of conceding soft scores.

“It was pretty feeble to be honest,” the New Zealander commented. “Our execution was poor at times.

“We conceded a couple of soft tries; a charge down when we had plenty of time to clear it, a ball taken from the base of the scrum - there's two tries that should never have been scored.

“It starts up front and they created a platform to be able to go forward. If you don't win quality possession then you're in a battle.

“The attack was pretty average, it lacked any purpose and punch and we drifted sideways. We didn't take our chances, a silly forward pass when we should have scored.

“We have to be more clinical when the opportunity presents itself.”

A Stuart Olding try and three Pienaar penalties was enough to earn Ulster a losing bonus point but that provided little consolation to Anscombe who believes his players need to raise their game.

“There's not too much to be positive about. We have too many guys that are drifting through the season and not accepting the role that they've got to do.

“If you're going to lose you at least want to get a bonus point out of it. We'll certainly take that after that performance.

“The concern is not so much that we're losing; it's how we're losing.

“I don't think we're putting the opposition under enough pressure and asking enough questions of them.”

Anscombe knows things won’t get any easier when Treviso visit Ravenhill next Friday - Ulster edged the previous encounter 15-16 back in November.

The Italian outfit will travel to Belfast buoyed by their 34-10 demolition of Munster over the weekend.

“They nearly beat us last time so unless we get our act together and perform better we're going to be in for another long night,” Anscome noted.

“They're not going to come over and lay down so we've got to be more urgent in what we do.”