Ulster coach Dan McFarland was delighted with his team’s character to bounce back from their loss to Leinster with a 47-17 victory against the Ospreys at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday.
McFarland’s men scored seven tries en route to their bonus-point victory, leaving them second on the United Rugby Championship table behind Leinster, who are four wins from four this season.
The coach says although the team did not speak much about bouncing back during the week, he knew his side would be focused on getting back on track against the Ospreys.
Strong character
“We showed great spirit to bounce back after last week,” said McFarland.
“We didn’t really need to talk about it that much, my gut told me we’d see that and we did.”
Ulster lost Ian Madigan, Billy Burns and Stuart McCloskey to injury during the clash, and McFarland was happy with how his side adapted during the game.
“The fact that we managed that second half pretty well given the amount of disruption we had in pivotal positions with Ian (Madigan) going off after playing so well in the first half, Billy (Burns) coming on and then having to go off, Stuart McCloskey having to go off,” he added.
“There was a lot of disruption around that but I felt until that final minute we managed that second half really well.”
McFarland admits Madigan’s injury looks relatively severe, but the club will only know the extent of the injury in the coming week.
“Ian’s one didn’t look great to be honest,” he said.
“He’s in a brace but we’d be hopeful the other guys will be OK, but we won’t know until Monday or Tuesday when they can be assessed.”
Ulster rang the changes for the Ospreys game, including the return of Springbok veteran Duane Vermeulen and McFarland claims there is a hunger within the squad for players to get on the field and prove their worth.
Good mood in the squad
“There are hungry guys in our squad,” he said.
“When the squad is playing well and doing some good stuff and they did that even last week, although we didn’t play as well as we could do, that was a tough game against a really good team.
“There’s a positive feeling about the way we’re playing. Guys are mustard to play. If they miss out on any game time, they get really hungry for the minutes they get.
“I think you see that in the determination they show when they go out when their name is called.”
Next up for Ulster is a two-game tour to South Africa, where they will face the impressive Lions and Sharks before a fixture away to Munster on their return to Ireland.
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