If the province are to get again within the successful behavior quickly, asking extra of the opposition with ball in hand might be key.
For all their possession, Ulster manufactured only one linebreak towards Munster with their opponents making 293 tackles in response to an assault the top coach described as “stodgy”.
However in a wider sense, with seven losses of their 10 video games this season, and struggles when stepping as much as the Champions Cup which have resulted in simply two wins from their previous 12 in Europe’s prime competitors, the decline over the previous 25 months has been stark.
When Murphy agreed to affix Ulster as Dan McFarland’s successor final season, he could have identified that he was to not be held to the identical customary of outcomes as his predecessors.
With double World Cup winner Steven Kitshoff having left one yr right into a three-year deal final summer time, the period of excessive value imports in Belfast seems to be over.
The place as soon as there was a price range for gamers corresponding to Duane Vermeulen, Marcell Coetzee and, going additional again, Ruan Pienaar and Charles Piutau, now Murphy says there’s “not bucket a great deal of cash” to spend.
Performances, and certainly expectations, replicate the change accordingly.
“We all the time knew once we have been coming in that the best way ahead was going to be completely different for Ulster, that we have been going to should deliver some younger guys by way of,” stated Murphy, who arrived in Belfast after success with the Irish under-20s.
“There’s not bucket a great deal of cash to signal individuals. The blokes are responding effectively, they’re working actually laborious, we simply must be a bit extra streetwise in huge moments in video games.”