With only one point in it when the final whistle went, Ulster fans were on the edge of their seats for a Round 7 match-up that saw two Interprovincial rivals go head-to-head in Limerick.
Following a difficult fortnight for the playing squad and support staff, after the postponement of Round 6 in South Africa due to extensive sickness within the travelling group, there was no doubt that securing a win against Munster, a feat that Ulster had not achieved in Thomond Park for the guts of a decade, was going to be no easy feat.
On the win, Head Coach, Dan McFarland, said:
“You’ve got to be satisfied with winning down here at Thomond Park. Not many teams come here and win, and the last time we won here was 2014.
“We’re off the back of a difficult period. Back in 2018 we played the Cheetahs, then we had to fly back from South Africa, and our next game was Munster at home, and we lost by 60 points. It was a seminal moment for the club, as it was the club’s worse loss at the time.
“I was new in the job as Head Coach, and afterwards we spoke as a group about how we didn’t want to do that again. We know that if you’re even slightly off, then you’re going to struggle against a team like Munster.”
Now sitting with five wins out of six in this season’s BKT United Rugby Championship, the Ulster men established a 15-3 half-time lead following tries from Jordi Murphy, Tom Stewart, and James Hume, who was making his return from an injury picked-up on Ireland’s summer tour of New Zealand.
But a Munster revival in the second half saw Dan McFarland’s men having to dig in, and live up to their motto of fighting for every inch – a mentality they had discussed throughout the week ahead of the fixture, as McFarland explains:
“We spoke as a group about how if you’re even slightly off then you’re going to struggle. Last year, we came down here and played them, and Munster had a red card for a chunk of the game and we managed to lose it then.
“The result is huge. We scored three tries, and the maul did a really good job. It was pretty important it did, as we weren’t dominant in any other part of the game. Defensively we did a good job in turning them over when we needed to, but a lot of their attack, particularly in that first half was good, and they were better than us in many areas of the game.
“But we found enough areas in the game to eke out the win, so I’ve got to be pleased with the result.”
Referring to the difficulties faced by Ulster in the run-up to the game following their return from South Africa, and recovering from illness, McFarland said:
“We arrived back on Monday, with Tuesday as a recovery day, so we were only able to train on Wednesday for a light session. We did nothing on Thursday, and then a team run on Friday, so it’s been an interesting couple of weeks.”
But despite these challenges, the match-day squad, including Springbok, Duane Vermeulen, and new signing, Rory Sutherland, both put in strong performances.
“Duane played very well, and I thought Rory when he came on was outstanding. He made a couple of massive plays, exactly as you would expect. I knew that the young fellas for Munster were going to be outstanding today, as history tells you that.
“There’s an argument that those who are gnarled and have been there before have more of a hinderance when faced with the young talent who haven’t been there before, and are determined to give everything.”
In no doubt that the win is a significant one for the province ahead of the international break in the season, the Head Coach finished by saying:
“When you play Munster, every inch of that turf counts for every second of that match, and you can see that right to the end. That’s because of the never-say-die attitude that you get in every Irish province, which is why I love working at Ulster so much.”