Murphy wants more polish for 'massive' La Rochelle visit

Ulster did just enough to see off the Ospreys 28-24 in a round of 16 Challenge Cup clash

Ulster's Nick Timoney celebrates with Jacob Stockdale after scoring his side's fourth try. Pic ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Richie Murphy has admitted that Ulster will have to up their game for Friday’s home European Challenge Cup quarter-final with La Rochelle.

In the wake of the province doing just enough to see off the Ospreys 28-24 in a round of 16 clash played while Storm Dave raged around the ground, the Ulster head coach pointed out that there is much to be done before taking on Ronan O’Gara’s side who won at Newcastle to make the last eight.

“The whole idea of being in the last 16 is to get the last eight,” said Murphy.

“So we're in the last eight, but we've got work to do and we've got a week's prep now to lead into La Rochelle.

“We'll brush ourselves down, we'll review really hard on Monday and get back to work and make sure that we turn up in a slightly more polished, and a little bit more tidy in and around some of our decision-making.

“If we can do that, we can cause any team threat, so we're excited about what's ahead,” the Ulster head coach said.

“It's a massive game for us, and it's home and I know they've had a tough enough season (in the Top 14) but they're still one of the top teams in Europe so when they come to town it's really exciting.” 

As for getting past a determined Ospreys side, Murphy was critical of aspects in Ulster’s play and game-management though he pointed out that they admirably toughed this one out, coming back from being 17-7 down to use the conditions and stay alive in the competition.

“The great thing for us is that we showed a nice bit of grit, we stuck in it and we got over the line, so we'll take what we got,” stated Murphy though the Ospreys nearly made off with victory late on only for Kieran Hardy’s late score to be chalked off for a forward pass.

“We were just a little bit too loose, discipline-wise a couple of rash decisions caused us problems and with the ball in hand, things that were sticking well early on in the season at the moment are just a little bit tricky, but we'll get back to where we want to be.

“We got in at half time, three points down (trailing 17-14) and with the wind at our backs, we did quite well to trap them down their end and pulled out two scores from that, got ourselves a decent lead, rotated, took players off because they needed to come off at that particular time though we probably never settled back down to our flow.

“We need 23 players who can be interchangeable and keep driving the performance forward and we probably didn't do that.”

La Rochelle held off a spirited Newcastle in their 26-18 win at a windswept Kingston Park.

Brett Connon kicked an early penalty before Ihaia West dived over for La Rochelle’s first try in the 22nd minute which was given following a TMO review. The French side, who had suffered a pool stage exit in the Champions Cup, added two more swift tries to open up a 15-3 lead as Jules Favre went over in the corner and hooker Gabin Garault then got off the front of a lineout.

West was shown a yellow card in the 38th minute for an off-the-ball tackle, with Newcastle soon making the most of their extra man as Elliott Obatoyinbo scored down the right to reduce the deficit heading into half-time.

Newcastle made a fast start to the second half as replacement Murray McCallum showed quick feet to step in between the posts, with Connon making the conversion to level the scores.

Connon kicked a 55th-minute penalty to edge Newcastle back in front, before Fergus Lee-Warner, who had not long come on, was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Diego Jurd.

The 19-year-old fly-half dusted himself down to kick a penalty and pull La Rochelle level at 18-all just after the hour. After his wind-assisted long-range penalty came back off the post, Jurd landed another successful kick from 10 metres before a late try from Nolhann Couillaud finally put the match out of Newcastle’s reach.

"We did the job," O'Gara said afterwards. "But it's only a step. Now we need to back it up."