It's important Ulster build on back-to-back wins ahead of Stormers clash: Richie Murphy
Richie Murphy knows Friday night’s clash with the Stormers at Kingspan Stadium will go a long way in deciding Ulster’s play-off destiny in the United Rugby Championship.
Ulster sit ninth in the table a place and a point behind the Cape Town side with only five games remaining in the regular season and go into the contest with a wave of optimism after late wins over the Scarlets and Dragons.
"We know exactly where we are,” stated Murphy. “We’re on back-to-back wins in the league, nine points in our last two games, only the second time this year we've got back-to-back wins...so trying to build off the back of that is important.
“We stayed in the fight really well and got over the line, so it's really important we back that up.
“It's set up really well for us with a home game on Friday night. We trained well on Tuesday, the feeling in the group is really good and we got away from the game at the weekend with no injuries.
Murphy knows that Ulster can’t gift a side like the Stormers the start they did against the Dragons, with the Welsh region scoring a try after 40 seconds.
He added: "The Dragons played really well against us, some of that was us handing them opportunities but they did look after the ball way better than they have in previous games.
“In the history of Ulster v Dragons games, they've never been high-scoring games like a bit split in the score.
“We knew going over was going to be quite difficult and we also knew they had a lot of Welsh internationals back.
“People are talking about Dragons being the fourth team over there and the fact that they would be the one that might get cut...so there's a hell of a lot for them to play for.
“But we had a lot to play for as well and the slow start is disappointing. It is something we've addressed internally, we've looked at ways we might get over that because we can't keep giving opposition seven-point, 14-point leads.”
“We had a very slow start in the Dragons game and lost control of it very early on.
“One of the things we're trying to solve is why things are happening to us the way they are.
“There's never been a question about the ticker in the team, the lads fight really hard for each other and are finding ways to win games late on.
“In some ways if we could be a bit more accurate early, we wouldn't get ourselves into those situations."
Ulster have won all 10 home games against South African opposition in the domestic league but Murphy doesn’t think those stats will be relevant come kick-off.
"I'm 0-from-0, we obviously look at our opposition and what they do but in relation to them coming over and whether they're going to show up or not, we don't really deal with that,” he continued. “We're going to prepare to play the very best version of the Stormers and what will turn up will turn up.
“It's very much about us as a team and how we get better. It hasn't been perfect but there's been movement in the right direction."
Ulster are boosted as Andy Warwick, Tom Stewart and Rob Baloucoune all return from injury.