Harry ​Sheridan’s ‘knife edge’ Ulster warning for URC push with Benetton next test

​Richie Murphy’s side face a real dog fight to make the playoffs and next season’s Champions Cup.

Harry Sheridan, the ‘man-of-the-match’ winner in the Cardiff victory, admitted Ulster will have to perform better in the run-in, especially with fifth-placed Benetton coming to the Kingspan Stadium on Friday.

“We can’t leave games like that on a knife edge, we want to put them to bed and we certainly didn’t,” said Sheridan. “After the four weeks we have had...just glad to get back on the horse and get back to winning ways.

“If that hadn’t gone our way there it would have been really tough going into Benetton trying to build momentum because they are going really well. We can now look forward to that and just really happy to get the win.

“It was so important and the four points because at this tail end of the season every point matters. It is almost like preliminary knockout rugby now with the way the table is so tight.

"If you go ahead this week, next week you are looking at the fixtures to see who everyone has got in the top eight and you are sort of wondering how this four-point swing is going to go. Every game is a knockout game and we are looking forward to Benetton...it is going to be a tough, tough challenge and we’re going to have to have a lot more accuracy to put them away.”

Sheridan was just to get over the line against the Welsh side.

“Relief is probably the biggest word coming out of it, if we are honest, Cardiff probably should have won that game,” he said. “It wasn’t good enough by us in terms of what we wanted to achieve before the game, there was a lot of effort, definitely can’t fault the effort but the accuracy just wasn’t there...tail end of the season, last eight, everything matters and that just wasn’t good enough.

“Just getting the four points and the ‘W’ is a relief and it can help us build up momentum. Looking forward to Benetton, we can attack it now rather than shrugging shoulders in the dressing room if we’d have lost that game.”

Ulster conceded nine turnovers and Sheridan believes the players have to take responsibility for the sloppy breakdown work.

“I would say it is on the players, the onus is on us to deliver,” he said. “We have all the breakdown plans in the world and we have really good breakdown coaches, Roddy Grant is in there and it is just a matter of delivering what they are asking for.

“Being a bit more brutal at the breakdown by us wouldn’t go amiss and a bit more urgency, Benetton have a big back row and they will be licking their lips after seeing that performance there. And if we don’t step up our performance in that department we are going to fall on our own sword.

“Benetton, with their attacking shape, they can score from anywhere, as you saw against Connacht. Defensively Connacht looked up to it then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, their 10 created two tries...if you are not switched on they will punish you.”