Greg Jones believes Ulster will end trophy drought soon

Ulster won 14 of 16 games in the Pro14 league but that wasn’t enough to gain a place in the final.

In Europe Ulster lost both games in the Champions Cup group, when at home to Toulouse Dan McFarland’s side had led 12-0 and away to Gloucester they held a 10-point advantage with six minutes remaining.

In the Challenge Cup, away wins at Harlequins and Northampton had Ulster favourites to lift the trophy before the semi-final against Leicester. The Irish province led 17-6 at half-time but were eliminated after a strong second-half fightback by the Tigers.

Flanker Greg Jones feels Ulster, who play Edinburgh on Saturday in the Pro14 Rainbow Cup in their final game of the season, are close to ending their 15-year trophy drought but knows they have to be more clinical from winning positions.

“In particular in the last year when we’ve reviewed matches when we’ve had bad losses after being in a really good position when we really feel like we should have won, stuff we’ve implemented in training to kind of mimic moments like that,” stated Jones.

“I think after all those big losses this year, like Toulouse and Gloucester - Leicester as well in the semi-final - they are games we reviewed really hard that like they were tough reviews for a lot of guys in that.

“We definitely looked at pin-pointing moments where we could have done something differently and where we could have been better.

“Dan’s a good man for having an understanding of psychology in sport and he made us dissect that game and the mentality that comes with momentum, and spotting moments when you’re completely out of the game momentum-wise and how to get yourself back into it.

“And also recognising when your team has the momentum and basically maintaining it... we have reviewed those games really hard and learned a lot that we can use next season in big games.”