Disappointment for Billy Burns as Ulster’s hopes hang by a thread

Last week Dan McFarland’s side had a 12-point advantage over Toulouse before losing 29-22, on Saturday at Kingsholm Ulster lead 34-24 with six minutes remaining only to allow Gloucester to score two converted tries.

The defeat to the English side means Ulster are effectively eliminated from the Heineken Champions Cup with two games still left in the pool. Ulster will now be scrapping in the new year to get a place in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup.

Reflecting on the mood in the squad ater the defeat captain Billy Burns said: “Not a great place to be, obviously the boys are gutted, you never like losing at home and then backing it up away, especially when we were in a position to win.

“It’s probably as dark a changing room as I’ve been in, but if that’s what it’s got to be for us to learn and take lessons going forward then so be it.

“The disappointing thing is so much didn’t go our way, a lot of it due to us, and we got ourselves into a position to win it and we couldn’t quite do it, there is huge disappointment, as you can imagine.

“I think if you lose two games, generally in the six-game competition it’s tough, so it’s definitely not ideal. We’ve got huge ambitions in this competition. If that is the end of the road then so be it.

“We’ve probably got the best set of fixtures coming up to bounce back in terms of interpros, so we’ll be focusing on them and then we’ll see where we get to come Europe in three or four weeks time.”

Ulster had won all eight Pro14 games going into the games and Burns is backing the squad to put their European nightmares behind them as they face their three Irish provincial rivals starting away at Connacht next Sunday over the festive period.

“We have to stay tight, I know that’s said a lot after games that are lost, but we haven’t been far away,” he said.

“We’ll go back, no pointing fingers, and the great thing about this squad is everyone’s humble, everyone’s got their feet on the ground and everyone wants to improve.

“We’ve never come into these games thinking we’re the finished article, obviously we’ve been unfortunate to lose the last couple of games but it’s time for guys to experience these lows before to pull these young guys through.”

“It’s hard to look at now, but we’ll be better for this in the future, I can guarantee you that.

“We’ve learned huge amounts these last couple of weeks and that’ll propel us forward, if it is the end of the road in this competition then so be it, we’ll be very disappointed obviously, but we’ll use that in the Pro14 and then into the big games come the end of the season.”