Ulster Coach Murphy Frustrated by Second-Half Collapse Against Bordeaux

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy conveyed his frustration following his team’s inability to capitalize on a robust first-half display during Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup loss to Bordeaux. The Irish province established a 19-14 lead at halftime, scoring three tries, but subsequently conceded 26 consecutive points in the second half, allowing Bordeaux to secure a bonus-point victory. “[I’m] definitely frustrated,” stated Murphy, who chose not to comment on Yoram Moefana’s yellow card for a high tackle on Nick Timoney. He continued, “Looking at the first half first, I thought we put some good stuff together and put a very good team under a lot of pressure. There were a couple of breakdowns we missed and they take the ball off you if you’re not accurate in the outside channels, obviously that was disappointing. The territory and possession that we had in the first half, we probably didn’t make a good enough impression with what we had. The second half, their bench came on, the physicality of the game just went up and we couldn’t survive it.” Ulster has now recorded four consecutive defeats, against Cardiff, Leinster, Toulouse, and Bordeaux. Despite this, Murphy maintains his squad is “getting better.” He added, “I think the first half shows that. But in order to be able to play against these types of teams, you need to be able to last 80 minutes and at the moment we’re not quite able to do that.”