Champions Cup trip to Bordeaux 'massive' for Ulster

Ulster went into the final weekend needing to win with a bonus point, hope the Sharks got nothing against Bordeaux and for a 56-point swing in their favour.

Ulster held their end of the bargain on Friday night by scoring eight tries in a 52-24 win over Exeter.

Richie Murphy’s men looked destined for the Challenge Cup when the Sharks scored two early tries in Bordeaux to race into a 12-0 lead – but the Top 14 leaders, inspired by six tries from winger Damian Penaud, scored 66 unanswered points to finish top seeds and set up a home knockout tie with Ulster.

Queen’s prop Scott Wilson was ‘Man of the Match’ against Exeter after making 14 tackles, 10 carries and winning a turnover.

“Knockout rugby is the rugby you want to be playing in, it’s the pinnacle of the season and what you build yourself up for, so it’s massive for the club,” said Wilson. “I’m enjoying it and getting more minutes than last year and really enjoying getting a few more starts and growing into the game more.

“Jimmy (Duffy) has worked with my scrummaging and I’ve got confidence and confirmation from Richie (Murphy, head coach) that I can play my game in the way I think I can play.

“I feel like the more gametime you get, the more time in the saddle you get the more confidence you can grow into the game...I sort of try and get my hands on the ball or a solid first scrum as early in the game as possible and I feel the rest takes of itself.”

Wilson feels the Ulster pack is getting better.

“We always knew when in Europe we’d come up against some of the biggest teams in the world, the French and the English packs are always going to be big...so we knew,” he said. “In my opinion, in recent weeks our pack has stepped up, we have struggled a bit at scrum time and that’s something we’re slowly ticking away at and I feel like is improving week on week.”

It was the pack that paved the way against Exeter, with the forwards claiming seven of the eight tries.

“We looked at them when we saw the team they put out and they had put out a big pack and would be set-piece orientated,” said Wilson. “And that’s the way the game started...it was a real physical and direct game, but I feel like the first scrum we were confident and we went at it and we slowly ticked away at it.

"And as the second half came we felt like had more gas in the tank.”

Wilson didn’t think the pool stages results reflected the performance levels.

“Toulouse we didn’t show up and it was a disappointing game, Bordeaux we were in it at 60 and that was the game where we needed to turn it on and stay consistent and Leicester was something similar, a good first half and then didn’t come out with the same attitude in the second half,” he said. “And that’s what we spoke about this week...it was 17-all at half- time, we felt we were the dominant team and we knew we needed to come out firing shots in the second half and I think that’s what we did.”