Alan O’Connor reflects on high cost of early struggles in Ulster loss

Both sides had went into the game on Friday with a maximum 10-point return from their opening two games but as the rain poured down it was Leo Cullen’s side that adjusted to the elements better, scoring two first-half tries which helped them establish a 17-3 lead at the break.

“The first 25 minutes (it all went wrong)...you can’t be going 14 points down against one of the best teams in Europe, it was a disappointing start,” said O’Connor. “It was a good fightback in the second half.

“Our penalty count was too high in the first half, which gave them good access.

“They managed the conditions quite well.

“They were getting up in the air well, there were a couple of set-piece penalties as well.

“It was a compounding of error and error, so we just have to take those hardships and look at them and go forward because there is no other alternative.

“The scrum went really well against Connacht at home.

There wasn’t many scrums against the Scarlets, I think there was three in the whole game.

“It was definitely messy, it wasn’t up to our standards and we have to make sure it is better against the Ospreys.

“Because it certainly wasn’t good enough at certain times of the game.

“It is individual responsibility, but it is also collective responsibility.

“If there are penalties against us and we are going backwards then there is definitely an issue and we have to sort that out going forward.”

The second row sought to take some positives out of the defeat.

“I thought our fightback in the second half was good once we got our maul in the game,” he said. “I thought our maul was really good.

“We kicked a bit better in the second half, which gave us good territory.

“I think we were too inconsistent in a lot of areas.

“The bad came at bad moments for us and I think the swing of momentum went at the right times for Leinster.

“For us, we didn’t capitalise in the first half in the far corner we had a very good maul then it was a messy breakdown and they turned it over.

“You have to be taking those chances, Leinster don’t let you into the 22 easy.

“When you get in there you have to make it count and we didn’t.

“There are positives, but the negatives definitely outweigh the positives.”

Ulster have a chance to bounce back from Friday’s defeat on Saturday against the Ospreys at Kingspan Stadium in the team’s last home fixture until the final weekend of November.

“The Ospreys have definitely been tricky opposition for us over the years,” said O’Connor. “They have a really good defence and set-piece.

“I think last time we played them here at home our scrum struggled as well.

“So that is definitely something we will need to focus on this week and get our maul going and go back to what we are good at.”