Dan McFarland happy with winning start

Young centre partnership James Hume and debutant Stewart Moore gelled well with both scoring a try.

Michael Lowry looked assured at out half and also crossed the whitewash plus there were debuts for Ireland U20’s captain David McCann and prop Gareth Milasinovich.

Ulster coach Dan McFarland was pleased with his side’s victory.

“I thought it was great, it was a very young, inexperienced back-line, playing against some big, big men, they did a really good job,” said McFarland.

“There was a little bit of naivety at times but I thought that was the way it was going to go, we saw some real glimpses of the talent on show from those prospects.

“Up front, we had the experience, what we asked of those guys was to take it to them in the maul, we laid down a challenge during the week.

“We can all agree it was a dominant maul performance, that was really going to help out that young backline against what I believe is a really good Treviso side.”

As well as scoring a try Moore made 11 carries and beat two defenders, McFarland was pleased with his contribution.

“I thought Stu made some really good decisions on the ball,” he said.

“James has been developing over the last while and has a few more games under his belt at this stage but at 13, it’s a really difficult place to defend.

“I thought they did well against what was a good a Treviso team, Stu got a try which was great for him.”

McCann also caught the eye after being sprung from the bench on 56 minutes for Sean Reidy, the flanker made some big carries.

“It was great to see Dave McCann get his first cap, he made a really good contribution when he came on.

“The bench included a number of guys who were involved in the ‘A’ game against what we can all agree was tough opposition and they put in a really good showing.”

“They deserved their chances and their opportunity, they came on and did a real job for us.”

Milasinovich missed the entirety of last season after being injured in only his second training session with Ulster after arriving from Worcester.

“He has been desperate to play, he got some time for the As and his first cap, he did a good job,” added McFarland.

“He’s a big man, he’s a tough man to stop and if you run straight into him, he’s going to empty you.”

“There are parts of his game that he does have to work on, hopefully he’ll get a chance to get some minutes going forward.”

It was Ulster’s first game at Kingspan Stadium in seven months and although there were only 600 fans allowed in McFarland was to be back home.

“The noise and the singing was invigorating, that was fantastic, 600 people spread out over the stadium making that noise,” he said.

“After five away games, and pretty tough away games at that, it was really nice to be back home and in front of a small section of our fans, they represented the fanbase really well and it was a pleasure to be here.”