ULSTER MAY HAVE leapfrogged Ospreys on Friday night at Ravenhill but the squelchy manner of their 10-7 victory did little to warm Mark Anscombe’s cockles.
Anscombe’s men trailed their Welsh visitors 7-3 at half-time and were indebted to a Darren Cave try and some staunch defence for the valuable Pro12 win. The Ulster coach conceded, “There’s no hiding from the fact that it was pretty ugly. It wasn’t good rugby; we were poor. We got over the tryline twice and lost it twice. If [Iain Henderson] had’ve got over it could have built momentum.”
“I reckon,” he added, “that we missed more tackles tonight than combined in every game I’ve been here [this season]. Our defence was poor, our kicking was poor. It was a real first game back from holidays and it looked like it.”
Torrential rain did not help Ulster nor Ospreys’ cause but, apart from Cave’s try and some good scrummaging from prop John Afoa, Anscombe struggled to pick any real positives other than the four points the win afforded his side. “We’ve got to take it on the chin and look ahead to next week, against Scarlets,” he added.
Afoa revealed the Ulster forwards had worked hard on their scrum all week but he was not happy with his team’s poor lineouts. “We’ve just got to draw a line under it and make sure it’s better again. we’ve got a couple of Welsh teams in this block. They all play pretty similar,” he said.
“Scarlets out-muscled us at their home game last year. It’s another big week for us… If guys were going home patting themselves on the back after this [win] it’d be a laugh. Everyone is disappointed with how we played.”
Anscombe was pleased with the steady showing from Ricky Andrew at fullback. The 24-year-old coped well under the high ball in blustery conditions and should continue in the role next week, allowing Jared Payne to occupy a midfield slot if Ireland coach Joe Schmidt recalls either or both of Luke Marshall and Cave to the fold.
– Additional reporting by Megan Joyce
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