Richie Murphy: 'We're nowhere near happy with the performance but we'll take the win and move on'

Ulster's last minute win over Champions Glasgow Warriors showed character but Head Coach Richie Murphy wants to see great improvements.

GREATER IMPROVEMENTS: Ulster’s Dave Shanahan celebrates scoring a late try to win the game. Picture: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Ulster coach Richie Murphy has called for greater improvements from his squad as they prepare to head for a two-game mini-tour of South Africa after the weekend’s dramatic 20-19 defeat of Glasgow Warriors.

The northern province opened their URC campaign by downing the champions in Belfast thanks to scrum half replacement David Shanahan’s last-gasp 84th minute try.

They now take on the Lions in Johannesburg’s altitude on Saturday and stay above sea level for the following week’s clash at the Bulls in Pretoria.

“It was massive,” Murphy said of the result, “it comes down to character and the mentality, not giving up.

“We want to be a team that will throw everything we've got at the opposition and if the opposition are too good for us, we'll that's fine. We'll accept that.

“We didn't throw everything that we had because we were just too inaccurate in many phases of the game, but we showed great character.

Teams are built around that.

“Glasgow were getting over the gainline and that’s an area we’re going to need to be better at going against the South African teams.

“(But) Getting off to a win is what we set out to do. Look, we stuck in the fight, and we found a way.” 

The Warriors had dominated the first hour of the game but only led 12-10 at the break and then had a 48th minute try from Rory Darge scrubbed out due to a forward pass.

They also shipped two yellow cards in the second half – the first to Tom Jordan swiftly followed by another for Richie Gray to briefly reduce them to 13 – which stalled their momentum.

Ulster’s bench made a huge impact on the game in terms of swinging it the way of the hosts though David McCann’s 72nd minute score was cancelled out by a try from Glasgow skipper Kyle Steyn before Shanahan stole the show though only after his touchdown underwent a TMO check.

“We're delighted for him,” Murphy said of Shanahan.

“It's a big moment and delighted for the team as well because we played a really good team. We weren't anywhere near our best, and we've found a way to win.

“We probably weren't accurate enough. Over the course of the whole game, we're probably a little bit disappointed with how we performed.

“But we were put under a lot of pressure and we've come up with some good answers at the end.

“The players coming on in the second half added, which is exactly what we wanted to do.

“There's loads to work on, we're nowhere near happy with the performance but we'll take the win and move on,” the Ulster head coach stated.