Speaking in the post-match press conference, Dan McFarland said that while Ulster showed some areas of promise, a world-class Toulouse side took full advantage of costly errors during the tie...
On performance...
“It was really tough, I felt for our guys, a lot of effort went into that, a lot of preparation, and they certainly left everything out there. We faced a Toulouse team who were outstanding in my view, a very difficult opponent play against. I don’t think we made it easy for ourselves but there were points in the game where we made a few errors, the difference was that they were good enough to capitalise on them immediately.
We showed patches where we put good plays together, we scored a pretty good try at the end of the first half off one of our set piece moves. We came out in the second half and made a few errors that allowed the game to get away from us. I thought we showed good character to give ourselves a good chance of a bonus point. We put some good plays together but with 10 mins to go we had a lineout and malfunctioned at two set-pieces in a row. To not come away with a bonus point once we put ourselves in that position was probably the most disappointing thing."
On Toulouse...
"I think if we were at our best we would give ourselves a fighting chance tonight but we knew how good they would be and they put 45 past Lyon with none in return, 50 odd points on Harlequins and they are so difficult to deal with.
Size is also a massive thing in rugby, lots of teams are chasing these enormous second rows, they are difficult to deal with these massive men who are disruptive at set-pieces and mauls. They are able to play around the rucks, tie away bodies and getting the ball away on offloads."
On Antoine Dupont...
"I think he’s the best player in the world, and has been for a few years. A great athlete, composed, has a few errors in him but he has so many pieces of great play that makes up for it. You don’t want to play against him too often!"
On Harlequins test...
We will go to Harlequins and look to put in a good performance against a very good Quins team. They have some real quality and have super individuals.
Marcus Smith is such a good player, Alex Dombrandt will drive them on, Will Evans has more jackals than anybody else in the premiership. They have exciting back three players but this competition is about playing exciting teams and that's what we will be ready for."
Ulster back-rower, Nick Timoney, scored his sixth try in four matches but was disappointed that Ulster's errors allowed a talented Toulouse team to take control of the contest....
On performance...
"I think we weren’t at our best but they are incredibly clinical and if you give them feed them mistakes they will punish you. I thought they were the better team, any game of rugby you can win, certainly we didn’t have an amazing game by any stretch but it would have taken an amazing game to get a win over them as they are world class.
It’s a bit disheartening as you never want to concede that many points, especially at home but sometimes teams play good and we will look to fix some of those errors we made. We will aim to rectify that and get that momentum that we built these last few games."
Home support...
"The crowd was amazing, a sell-out, there was a great buzz about the place. Although we were behind we never stopped fighting for the bonus point, it felt like we were all in, it looked like game was fully getting away from us so we have some credit for not letting it fully get away from us. We finished reasonably strong with a couple of tries and we showed some fight that we wouldn’t lie down."
On Harlequins this weekend...
"I feel confident at the moment in this team, today didn’t go to plan but I think our mentality is to to move onto the next thing. We didn't win but we are onto the next moment and it’s a huge opportunity that I’m looking forward to it.
They have a lot of exciting players at the breakdown and ; similar to today they have a lot of players who can hurt you. We will go after it and have nothing to lose."