Richie Murphy: 'You’ve always got a chance, it’s a very difficult place to come. The atmosphere will be incredible, we wish them all the best'
TOUGH PLACE: Ulster head coach Richie Murphy wishes Munster well as they will make the trip to Bordeaux Bègles next weekend. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
So how do you keep Bordeaux-Bègles at bay? Ulster gave it a rattle on a very warm Sunday afternoon, scoring five tries in an absorbing Champions Cup Round of 16 tie, but it was still not enough to contain a UBB side flowing with creativity and power.
It will be Munster’s turn next Saturday, their reward for a hard-fought and narrow away victory at La Rochelle a far from welcome trip to face the top seeds on their home patch at Stade Chaban-Delmas, Ulster head coach Richie Murphy outlined just how difficult their task will be after he watched his charges ship three early tries, the first a beauty from Damien Penaud, to trail 21-0 after 21 minutes. Murphy’s men hit back with two converted tries of their own from Tom O’Toole and Dave McCann then succumbed to a scintillating fourth Bordeaux try finished by Romain Buros on the stroke of half-time to trail 28-14, Joey Carbery’s four conversions helping his side to set up a last-eight clash with his former club.
Carbery had also instigated the second counter-attack with a change of gear that allowed Ulster little time to reset after a loose kick upfield, his initial burst followed by four wonderful offloads as UBB ploughed upfield to the visitors’ tryline.
It was the former Ireland international’s last meaningful contribution, his afternoon ended by a heavy, chest-high hit from Stewart Moore on 46 minutes, though Carbery should be available to his club for a reunion with old team-mates next Saturday.
The second half took on a similar pattern, Bordeaux stretching their lead to 36-14 through a Maxime Lucu penalty and try from hooker Maxime Lamothe before another Ulster rally which delivered two tries with another disallowed, made things interesting. Nick Timoney and Zac Ward’s scores brought the score to 36-24 heading into the final quarter.
There was a further exchange of tries, Rohan Janse van Rensburg’s 70th minute score equalled by a second from Ward, while other Ulster score was scratched off by referee Luke Pearce for a forward pass. The visitors had fallen short while Bordeaux march, to the delight of the majority of the 32,215 crowd celebrating in the April sunshine.
Ulster will have shown their Irish counterparts some pictures to attack UBB but containing them maybe the biggest challenge for Munster’s defence, not least if they repeat Murphy’s side’s loose kicking in the first half, both Penaud and Buros’s tries coming off counter-attacks.
“It’s hard to know,” he replied when asked how to defend against Bordeaux, “because you can’t not kick the ball either because there’s lots of threats at the breakdown.
“The period when we held on to the ball, our speed to breakdown was better and we built quite a few phases, you could see them physically struggling with the pace of the game from time to time.
“You know once you turn the ball over, within two or three phases it’s going to be a try.”
Did Munster have a shot next Saturday, was the next poser for the Ulster boss.
“You’ve always got a chance, it’s a very difficult place to come. The atmosphere will be incredible like it was yesterday, we wish them all the best.”
Murphy did take some satisfaction from game as his thoughts turn to the end of season URC run-in. Ulster are in the play-off mix, placed sixth with four rounds of the regular season remaining, two of them interprovincial derbies, with Leinster next up at Aviva Stadium on April 19 and a visit to Thomond Park to face Munster on May 9, either side of the Sharks going to Belfast. The character shown by his players to keep contesting and trading blows in Bordeaux gives the head coach hope.
“Extremely proud of the lads, the way they stuck at it and stayed in the fight.
“We played some really good rugby at times, the transitionary moments which we knew were going to come really cost us in that first half.
“A couple of loose kicks and they punish you really badly.
“Fair play to Bordeaux, and we wish them all the best going forward, our focus turns to the URC.”
“We seem to like to give teams head starts. The last few weeks we’ve been 14-0 down and this week we were 21 points down after the first period and that’s tough.
“What we’ve shown over the last few weeks is good resilience within the squad, you can see the team starting to build. Some young players are getting really good experience at the very top level and finding ways.
“At times we caused them a lot of trouble with ball in hand.”
: R Buros; D Penaud, Y Moefana, B Tapuai (R Janse van Rensburg, 61), P Uberti; J Carbery (M Jalibert, 46), M Lucu – captain (Y Lesgourgues, 71); J Poirot (R Latterrade, 40), M Lamothe (M Perchaud, 61), B Tameifuna (S Falatea, 46); C Cazeaux, A Coleman (P Bochaton, 46); M Diaby (B Vergnes-Taillefer, 55), G Petti, P Samu
: M Lowry; Z Ward, J Hume (S Moore, 40), S McCloskey, J Stockdale; J Murphy (A Morgan, 61), J Cooney (N Doak, 51); A Warwick (C Reid, 44), R Herring (T Stewart, 58), T O'Toole (S Wilson, 56): A O'Connor – captain (M Dalton, 56), K Treadwell; J McNabney, N Timoney, D McCann (Matty Rea, 65).
: Luke Pearce (England)
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