Ulster opened its European campaign with a disappointing 28-13 defeat in Bordeaux but Director of Rugby Les Kiss has backed his team to respond against Exeter at Kingspan Stadium next weekend (Saturday, 7.45pm).
Summing up his emotions following the Champions Cup match at Stade Chaban-Delmas, Kiss said:
“It's absolutely, thoroughly, completely disappointing. We didn't play that second half well. We played to their style of game and let them gain energy with that. And then when we had a chance to relieve ourselves or get to a point of recovery from those forays on our own line, we just came up with some poor execution and poor decisions. It just wasn't smart enough from us, and effective enough.
“We've had a good chat, we'll stick together, we'll work hard together like we have to. That's our only option, and we've got to find a way to turn around what happened and deliver next week.
“Exeter was always going to be a tough proposition anyway, but should we look at them next week? Maybe we should just take a hard look at ourselves. It's just the truth of it.”
Three tries in the last 10 minutes for the Raphael Ibanez coached outfit saw them deny Ulster even a losing bonus point, adding to Kiss’ obvious frustration.
“Unfortunately that loss hurts big time. In this game sometimes you've just got to accept one point. After we hurt ourselves, we got the chance to get one point and we threw that away as well. We've talked about what one point means and one win means in the context of our season and hopefully we're not going to rue that later in the comp.”
Kiss paid tribute to the large travelling Ulster support in Bordeaux and says there is 'deep disappointment' that the fans didn't get the result they deserved.
“It’s absolutely fantastic what they give us. They deserve better and unfortunately we didn’t deliver what we should have delivered for them. We can’t fault what the supporters gave to us and I know there is deep disappointment in the dressing room that we let them down.
“We’ve got to stand up and deliver next week because we know our supporter base will.”
Kiss was deeply saddened by the sudden death of his ‘great friend’, Munster coach Anthony Foley, who passed away in Paris this weekend.
“It puts things into perspective. That's real life. To lose Axel at such a young age is such a tragedy. He was a great man, a great friend. He loved the game of rugby, loved Munster, loved Ireland, and what it stood for. He'll be a great loss and our thoughts go out to his family and friends. Our thoughts go out to Munster and all of Irish rugby. We've lost a legend and it hurts.”
Summing up his emotions following the Champions Cup match at Stade Chaban-Delmas, Kiss said:
“It's absolutely, thoroughly, completely disappointing. We didn't play that second half well. We played to their style of game and let them gain energy with that. And then when we had a chance to relieve ourselves or get to a point of recovery from those forays on our own line, we just came up with some poor execution and poor decisions. It just wasn't smart enough from us, and effective enough.
“We've had a good chat, we'll stick together, we'll work hard together like we have to. That's our only option, and we've got to find a way to turn around what happened and deliver next week.
“Exeter was always going to be a tough proposition anyway, but should we look at them next week? Maybe we should just take a hard look at ourselves. It's just the truth of it.”
Three tries in the last 10 minutes for the Raphael Ibanez coached outfit saw them deny Ulster even a losing bonus point, adding to Kiss’ obvious frustration.
“Unfortunately that loss hurts big time. In this game sometimes you've just got to accept one point. After we hurt ourselves, we got the chance to get one point and we threw that away as well. We've talked about what one point means and one win means in the context of our season and hopefully we're not going to rue that later in the comp.”
Kiss paid tribute to the large travelling Ulster support in Bordeaux and says there is 'deep disappointment' that the fans didn't get the result they deserved.
“It’s absolutely fantastic what they give us. They deserve better and unfortunately we didn’t deliver what we should have delivered for them. We can’t fault what the supporters gave to us and I know there is deep disappointment in the dressing room that we let them down.
“We’ve got to stand up and deliver next week because we know our supporter base will.”
Kiss was deeply saddened by the sudden death of his ‘great friend’, Munster coach Anthony Foley, who passed away in Paris this weekend.
“It puts things into perspective. That's real life. To lose Axel at such a young age is such a tragedy. He was a great man, a great friend. He loved the game of rugby, loved Munster, loved Ireland, and what it stood for. He'll be a great loss and our thoughts go out to his family and friends. Our thoughts go out to Munster and all of Irish rugby. We've lost a legend and it hurts.”