Iain Henderson focusing on positives as Ulster continue 'learning process' after another tough European defeat

Defeats in the United Rugby Championship to Cardiff and Leinster have left the province 10th in the domestic league ahead of Friday’s festive Inter-Pro against Munster, while in Europe reversals against Toulouse and Bordeaux mean Richie Murphy’s side are bottom of Pool One and facing an uphill struggle to secure knockout rugby.

Ulster have conceded 101 points in their two European ties and the defence has coughed up 22 tries in their last four games.

“Going forward we have a vision and plan in place of what we want to do.” said Henderson. “You can see some of the younger guys improving and feeling training is getting better.

"We are solidifying better habits throughout the squad but are we there yet? We are nowhere near where we want to be.

“There is always disappointment after losing big games, especially the manner we have lost our last two, but that is part of the learning process and part of the pain you have to go through to get better and ensuring that a lot of our players are getting exposure to these teams at the top level.

“To those guys getting their first caps tonight, Zac (Ward) did really well, Telf (Rory Telfer) didn’t get enough to show what he can actually do. Those guys getting exposure at that level can only learn from that and ideally get better.

“From last week, to this week and the week before, there was a lot within those games, playing those three teams who are arguably the top three teams in Europe...there is a lot to be said there for patches in those games.

“We can see that we can compete with them at times, but we don’t compete with them for a full 80 minutes. It is just ensuring that we can continue to build, take our learnings and try to put them in place.

“It is about making sure the guys can understand what they have to do and putting that into practice. We talked that there were exciting things in that first half and there were elements in that first half that we should be proud of, but there are a whole heap of them in the second half that are a reversal of that.”

Munster arrive in Belfast a point and a place below Ulster in the URC and coming off a defeat in Europe and Henderson feels it is the perfect opportunity for Ulster to bounce back.

“We’re excited about that,” he added. “This whole block we knew was going to be very challenging.

"We knew it was going to be tough but that is where we want to be, we want to be challenging ourselves.

“I have no doubt in my mind that when the guys come in on Monday no one will be sulking or trying to throw anyone under the bus. We are in this as a process together to ensure we continue to work on what we have been working on over the last number of weeks.

“Munster are definitely a team that can score from anywhere as well. Although their league position mightn’t seem as threatening as the last three games that we have played, we know they will be coming up wanting to rattle us a bit and we have got to be excited about that.”