'It definitely won't deflate us' - Richie Murphy defiant but views Ulster loss at Leinster as chance to learn lessons

For a second consecutive game Ulster held a double-digit lead after half time.

In the Cardiff meeting, Murphy’s team lost after acquiring a 14-point advantage, while in Dublin they squandered a 10-point lead – with Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan’s late try giving Leinster a bonus point win.

“It definitely won't deflate us, it definitely won't knock us off track, we just need to regroup, learn from the mistakes that were in this game and just try and prepare the best we can for Connacht,” said Murphy. “We'll learn from this experience.

"Again, you look at the young guys that are coming on to the pitch, the young guys that start...Charlie Irvine – massive game for him.

“Joe Hope's coming on, Bryn Ward 21 years of age, all of them, those guys will learn from this experience and we'll get better.

"That's what we've tasked at the start of the season - that we improve every week.

“We played some really good rugby in the first half and obviously get out to a lead.”

“A couple of crucial moments in the second half...one, Rob Baloucoune just can't quite get the ball away, two-man overlap around the outside and there's one then where we troll on the ground off of five man, two great opportunities to go deep into Leinster's ‘22’ and possibly score.

"We went away a little bit from what we were doing in the first half.

“We didn't look after the ball well enough in that second half...discipline a little bit hurt us as well throughout the game.”

Leinster were able to bring the likes of Sheehan, Tadgh Furlong and Joe McCarthy off their bench when chasing the game and Murphy felt the Leinster replaces helped turn the tide.

“There's no doubt that their bench has a massive impact in the back end of the game,” he said. “From an experience point of view, we're at very different levels of players coming on to the pitch.

“Joe Hope has two caps and he comes on against Joe McCarthy, who's the Irish international,”

“That's where we're at...what we said at the start of the year – and we talk about it every week – is what do we take out of this week and move on.

"A couple of opportunities I said that we didn't get quite right in the game...massive impact on how the game finishes out.

“Leinster squeezes a little bit in and around the lineout and then their power game was hard to stop.

“It's really important from our point of view that we get our defensive line coming forward to try and meet that, as that blue wave comes at you it's difficult.

“We're disappointed with the loss but winning in the Aviva against Leinster is always a difficult thing to do anyway.

“We're improving all the time, we're improving in every aspect of our game all the time.”