Ciaran Donaghy
Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale (left) pushes Ospreys’ Jack Walsh away in the tackle at the Affidea Stadium, Belfast. (Photo by Liam McBurney/PA Wire)
Head coach Richie Murphy expressed relief as Ulster set up the European Challenge Cup quarter-final test with Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle after overcoming the Ospreys by 28-24 in strong wind and driving rain.
Ulster looked to be crashing out of the tournament when, with two minutes remaining, the Ospreys thought they had scored a winning try.
From a break deep in their own half the Ospreys raced into the Ulster 22, centre Owen Watkins offloaded to Kieran Hardy who stumbled but still managed to roll over the line and touch down.
But the final pass was adjudged to be forward and from the resulting scrum Ulster were able to close the game out.
“I think a little bit of relief definitely,” said Murphy. “It never was going to be easy and the conditions tonight obviously made it very difficult.
“Created quite a few opportunities in the first half, didn’t quite pick the right pass…that put us under a little bit of pressure.
“Conceded a couple of early scores to them which, defensively, we were just a little bit off.
“But, all-in-all, the whole idea of being in the last 16 is to get the last eight, so we’re in the last eight.
“We’ve got work to do and we’ve got a week’s prep now to lead into La Rochelle, which will be really exciting.
“A couple of handling errors…look, the type of team that we are is a team that we want to play and we want to try and play to space.
“On a night like that we’re still going to try and stick to our processes if the opportunities are out there and handling error here and there.
“But we’re going to have them and they’re going to be in our game but because that’s how we try and play the game…we have to accept that and move on, so created the opportunities, didn’t take them.
“Next week we’ve got to work on our skills and training and make sure we take them the following week.”
Murphy was adamant Watkins’ pass was forward.
“A forward pass, that’s what went through my head,” said the Ulster head coach. “We were looking at it from more or less straight on.
“We thought it was forward straight away, obviously, you don’t know whether the referee is going to give it or not…but our first reaction was the pass was forward.”
Ulster face two-time European Cup champions La Rochelle, who had the luxury of resting their star names for the trip to Newcastle but still edged a narrow victory.
“It’s a massive game for us,” said Murphy. “It’s home, I know they’ve had a tough enough season but they’re one of the top teams in Europe when they come to town, it’s really exciting.
“We’ll brush ourselves down from the Ospreys, we’ll review really hard on Monday and get back to work and make sure that we turn up in a slightly more polished, a little bit more tidy in and around some of our decision-making.
“If we can do that, we can cause any team a threat, so we’re excited about what’s ahead.
“Ronan O’Gara…great player, great coach, done a marvellous job in La Rochelle, so it’s good to see him going well.”