Ulster’s chances of making the knock-out stages of the Champions cup appear to be over following Saturday night’s 38-10 drubbing at the hands of the Leicester Tigers.
An early Nathan Doak penalty and Nick Timoney try, fired the visitors into an early 10-0 lead.
But as the half wore on, the Tigers broke down Ulster’s resistance little by little and two Josh Bassett tries helped Michael Cheika’s outfit to a 12-10 lead at the break.
But after putting up a brave performance in the first 40 minutes, the second period was a one-sided affair.
Bassett went on to complete a hat-trick while his fellow winger Ollie Hassell-Collins claimed a brace before centre Izaia Perese completed the scoring. Full back Freddie Steward claimed the player of the match gong in a win that confirms Leicester’s place in the knock-out stages of the competition.
It was another chastising Champions Cup night for Ulster who failed to throw any punches in the second half.
“A very difficult second half,” was head coach Richie Murphy’s initial reaction.
“At 10-0 up, I thought we were very much in the game, causing Leicester a bit of trouble especially in and around the line-out.
“We had a couple of opportunities early on and we probably didn’t capitalise enough on that. But the game got away from us into that second half.
“We didn’t deal with the high ball well enough which created broken field allowing Leicester to get on top.”
In the closing stages of the first half Ulster were full value for their three-point lead at 7-10. But the concession of a penalty just as the clock turned red presented Leicester with an opportunity that they were never going to pass up on.
Bassett’s second try propelled the Tigers into the lead for the first time, and after the break it was all one-way traffic.
After being encouraged by Ulster’s performance in the first half, Murphy was annoyed at some of Ulster’s play in the second half.
“We could’ve caught the high balls that were kicked at us,” said Murphy when asked if they could’ve done anything different.
“You know, the momentum changed in and around those points. There’s a couple of little moments just before half time where the two Leicester scores come from.
“They probably come off the back of a couple of mistakes that we’ve made. The high ball game; the kicking game they had was superior to ours. Our fielding which is normally very good was not at the same level that it needed to be tonight.”
To add to Ulster’s woes, Full back Ethan McIlroy’s return to action lasted a mere 23 minutes after he appeared to jar his knee and fall awkwardly after receiving a pass.
It was McIlroy’s first appearance since October 26 and Murphy admitted afterwards that it looks a serious knee injury.
It leaves Murphy with a selection headache ahead if Friday night’s final pool game against Exeter.
“We’re in a situation where we have as many as 6/7 back three players out. We’re missing two international centres. Two international hookers and a number of other players who sit around the middle section of our squad.
“You know, towards the back end of the game we have a 20-year-old out-half. We’ve two 22-yeard-old centres. A 21-year-old full back and winger and a scrum-half playing full back.
“So, it’s a very disjointed set-up at the moment and the great thing is we’re used to it. We haven’t been able to pick from a full deck of players all year so we just roll on into the next one.”