Richie Murphy told the press that the coaching staff and players were very disappointed after the final whistle, with Zebre Parma edging the win after the high of last week's Investec Champions Cup victory against Exeter Chiefs.
On performance
“We are bitterly disappointed. It was a poor performance from us all the way through the park. I suppose we have to look at the week leading into it. We had two really good days Monday and Tuesday. We had a training session cancelled because of the storm, a good session on Saturday and turned up feeling that we were in a good place feeling ready to go.
We talked about trying to apply some pressure through field position. We didn’t do that well enough. We got into the 22 a couple of times, two loose offloads and the ball turned over on the tryline. That fuelled the belief for the team we played against and fair play to Zebre, they deserved their win tonight."
On needing an 80 minute performance
"Ultimately over a longer period you are going to fall short. It shouldn’t go down to the last five minutes. What we need to do is far off at the start of the game and emotionally are we ready for the challenge coming at us? We felt like we were but when you see how we played we were well short of where we needed to be.
We need to find out why and do something with that. Last week probably had a part to play in tonight but that isn’t good enough of an excuse in professional rugby."
Strain on squad
"Our backs are playing more than they should have. Scott Wilson as a young tighthead, with Tom O’Toole being out, his load is more than it should be for his age. That’s where we are at. We know that during the week and we are trying to prep the players so that they can peak at the weekend. We haven’t managed that this week."
Need for consistency
"It’s a knock to the confidence. We had looked at these next batch of games as an opportunity to squeeze up the table. The players are disappointed with themselves but ultimately, we are all in this together and we have to find a way to become a more consistent team."
Preparing for Queensland Reds fixture
"Our next game is Queensland Reds, a friendly game here but our next league game is Benetton away. They had a poor result themselves this weekend so they will be looking to bounce back themselves in Treviso.
All concentration will go towards building the team for that. At that stage we should be healthier, Stu McCloskey will be back fit and ready. He’ll play some minutes in the Queensland game, James Hume will play in the Queensland game, Jacob Stockdale too, so with experience like that coming back in it will help."
Message for supporters
"A massive thank you to the supporters. I’m sorry that our performance didn’t match their enthusiasm for the team. We are working hard, sometimes they might look our there and think ‘what is going on?’ But there is a huge amount of time and effort from everybody from the players, management and the coaching team but we have to find a way of being more consistent in our performances."
Importance of Queensland Reds match
"We are looking forward to getting back in and preparing for Queensland which will be an interesting game for our international players getting game time. Getting them back is really important to help build some confidence back into the squad going forward.
It’s important with the guys coming back. There are a couple of guys who haven’t played with us that we want to have a look at because they could add to our group. And re-integrating our internationals.
Our squad has been depleted over the last number of weeks. Jude Postlethwaite and Ben Carson have been playing every week. Wilhelm De Klerk is behind them as an Academy player. Because of the amount of young players in the backline we have been reluctant to put another one there. Wilhelm might get a look in against Queensland along with James Hume and Stuart McCloskey."
Ulster captain, Nick Timoney, echoed his Head Coach's words and revealed what was spoken about in the dressing room after the final whistle.
Post-match feeling
"Pretty upset. It was a big game that we needed to win. We would have been expected to win from the outside and we would have expected a much better performance from ourselves than we did. We are very disappointed.
There are loads of things that we need to get better at before the game. That’s more evident now if it wasn’t already. One or two decent results over the past few weeks over what’s been a tough run. We need to make sure they aren’t masking anything. There are things we need to get better at and sort out. We’re very disappointed with how we performed and I think we are much more capable of what we showed tonight."
Work to do
"It's tough but we have to take it on the chin, move forward and get better.
There’s certainly a consistency thing that we need to work on. I think there were times last week when we were really poor as well, we ran away with it on the scoreline but it maybe masked some of things a little bit.
We got away with some things by scoring tries in the second half and we didn’t get away with that today.
There’s set piece stuff, holding onto the ball, managing the game, we need to get better at all of those aspects."
Respect to Zebre Parma
"They are a better team than people give them credit for. When we are at home we feel we should be beating anyone. We certainly didn’t do that and I’ll not disrespect a team that have just beaten us. They were the better team today and it’s very disappointing."
Belief in team going forward
"We aren’t taking our medicine and accepting it. We are going out to win every week. It didn’t feel like that today but there are lads there who have a little bit of experience now who are performing well and there are important lads coming back from injury. I believe when you look at our squad we have the makings of a team who can push well into the top eight of the league and get some good wins.
We have to get better. I’ve learned that there are loads of times where you feel as low as you can get and you can accept it, fight, and work your way back up. That’s what we are going to do."