Richie Murphy not impressed with performance despite Ulster’s Challenge Cup win in Montpellier

In what was very much a tale of two halves in their last-16 tie at the GGL Stadium, Ulster were deservedly down ten points at half-time after being bullied at the breakdown, racking up the penalties and displaying an inaccuracy with ball in hand that left them with a mountain to climb.

But a red card to Montpellier captain Paul Willemse and three yellow cards - two of which came a minute apart, leaving the hosts down to 12 men - completely flipped the script and allowed the province to run in five unanswered tries to claim a 40-17 win.

That sets up a last-eight clash with old foes Clermont next week - which Belfast Telegraph Sport understands will be on Saturday - and a chance to book their place in the Semi-Finals of a European competition for the first time since 2021.

But the head coach was left less than satisfied with aspects of the performance, particularly given it came after what was a promising outing against the Stormers a week ago, albeit in a losing effort.

"The performance wasn't the performance that I was looking for," conceded Murphy.

"We wanted to back up last week's performance against the Stormers and take another step in that direction. We didn't quite get there but I was pleased with the character to stick together and get the win.

"That was obviously helped by a red card and some yellows but when that did happen, we put some good phases together to see the game out, which is pleasing. But we do have a lot of work to do."

Ulster had been down by two scores at the break after tries from Willemse and Aubin Eymeri and a penalty from Louis Foursans, with Will Addison responding for the misfiring visitors.

But Willemse's red card for a high shot on Addison just two minutes into the second half would swing the momentum firmly in favour of Ulster, and after tries from Robert Baloucoune and replacement prop Scott Wilson had put the province ahead, Montpellier lost their heads.

Florian Verhaeghe and Vana Karkadze saw yellow for off-the-ball incidents a minute apart to put them down three men and Ulster took full advantage, player of the match David McCann and Stuart McCloskey crossing.

Masivesi Dakuwaqa then deliberately knocked on a try-scoring pass to earn their third yellow card and a penalty try with the final act of the game to seal a comfortable win for Ulster, and Murphy admitted they had to dig deep to prevail.

"We had talked at half-time about how we hadn't been accurate in the first half and our breakdown had been poor," he continued.

"Our energy levels looked off compared to last week, but I imagine a lot of that was maybe down to us coming back from South Africa and then back out here. There's been a big toll on the players the last couple of weeks and that impacted the first half.

"We didn't get to the same intensity level as Stormers and we need to be aware of that. But at half-time the guys were focused that there was more in them in the second half.

"I know (the red card) happened only two minutes into the second half but even those first couple of minutes we had looked a little better than in the first half."

As well as ensuring their Challenge Cup dream lives on for another week at least, it was a positive afternoon for Murphy as he picked up his first win in charge of Ulster since taking over the province on an interim basis.

The Bray native had taken charge of back-to-back losses in South Africa in his first two games, going down to the Sharks and then at least picking up a losing bonus point against the Stormers, but finally coming out on the right side of the scoreline was another think to check of the list of milestones in his coaching career.

Still, rather than focus on his own achievements, Murphy was instead determined to sharpen the focus ahead of a tough trip to Clermont in a week's time, insisting that all that matters is backing it up.

"It's knockout rugby, it's just about winning games. In this competition we don't need anything bar winning the game at the end of the day," he retorted.

"In my time, I've only been here two weeks but we hadn't won yet, so I'm really happy to get our first victory.

"We will look back on this because we need to get better. We need to have a good look at some of our decision-making elements and the ability to look after the ball better in the contact area.

"It's about our speed, getting in there, and when we're in there making sure we target people. We were too slow. We were reactive instead of proactive.

"If we can fix those going into next week it'll give us a great chance going into Clermont."

Murphy also confirmed that captain Iain Henderson should be good to go for next week's clash in the Auvergne after he limped off in the dying stages of the match.

"We think he'll be fine. He has a bit of a sore toe," added the coach.