Murphy call for successful South African sojourn after Bulls scalp 

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy and Iain Henderson. Pic: Nick Elliott

Ulster coach Richie Murphy has called on his squad to back up last Saturday’s 28-7 home win over the Bulls when they travel midweek to South Africa for forthcoming clashes with the Sharks and Lions.

“I don't think we should worry about any team that we're playing,” Murphy said following Ulster’s bonus point victory which was also the Bulls' first reverse after two wins in Pretoria.

“Going down to South Africa is obviously a very difficult place to go and I think next week will be something like 26 degrees and 77% humidity but we're going down there on a mission to win.” 

Tries from Stuart McCloskey, new signing Juarno Augustus, Rob Herring and Cormac Izuchukwu were enough to see off the visitors in Belfast and bring Ulster two maximum point wins from the matches they have played having been unable to tog out at Edinburgh in round two due to Storm Amy.

While celebrating the overall performance on both sides of the ball in Ulster’s impressive display, Murphy highlighted the efforts made by Augustus and Jacob Stockdale who was selected at full back.

This was the first start for Augustus, who was signed from Northampton Saints, and Murphy praised his work rate after putting in a muscular 60 minutes.

“He (Augustus) probably hasn't had the pre-season that we would have wanted to give him with his injury but he definitely makes up for it in determination, and he'd obviously have a bit of a point to prove coming from South Africa himself.

“We’re pretty happy with him and we'll build on that over the next number of weeks.” 

As for Stockdale who will hope to be named midweek in Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad for the autumn internationals, Murphy stated: “He'll be a bit disappointed with a dropped ball, I definitely was, underneath the sticks (which led to Wilco Louw’s converted try).

“Jacob came back in (from injury) and after one training session this week was passed fully fit.

“He did well. He looks comfortable back there.

“I think he still has a bit of work to do in relation to the actual covering of the space, but” said Murphy, “when he has ball in hand, he's awesome.” Ulster again looked slick in attack which they combined with a defensive effort which kept the Bulls down to just one score.

“We want to be a little bit unpredictable in our game and we're obviously trying to work the ball to space,” said Murphy of Mark Sexton’s work here.

“Sometimes that space is on the edge, sometimes it's through the middle and sometimes it'll be in the backfield. Being able to see and execute and be calm enough under huge pressure to be able to do that, that's what we need to do.

“Willie Faloon’s defence has taken leaps forward too and the guys looked like they wanted to defend for each other.

“Last year when we were line broken, we were conceding tries,” Murphy stated.