Jimmy Duffy praise for 'fluid' Ulster in pre-season friendly win over Edinburgh as part of URC prep

Ulster scored five tries in their only hit out before the United Rugby Championship starts with a home game against the Dragons in a fortnight.

“First and foremost, obviously nice to win at home,” said Duffy. “We knew we'd have a couple of combinations to try out and see how they went.

"And some of the lads, individually, I thought did really, really well.

“Some of our attack early on in the game was really fluid and we caused Edinburgh some bother when we actually struck some phases together.

“Got a little bit disjointed with a couple of injuries and that's always going to be the case in pre-season, so I think they're a very, very smart physical side.

“Nice to be on the right side of the scoreboard, I suppose is probably the first and foremost thing – and come through with a couple of bumps and bruises, so we manage people as opposed to risking anybody.

“A lot of guys playing together and getting to know each other on the field in live competitive games.

“Overall, just nice to win and I think three Academy backs finished the game there for us and that back line out of seven, which is really good.

“They've worked really hard over the summer period and it was nice to see them go well.”

Duffy doesn’t feel that it will be a hindrance that Ulster have had only one warm-up game before the season starts,

“Trainings are physical at the moment, so if we need to turn up the volume in terms of contact and collision, we can do that,” said Duffy. “But very much looking after the lads.

“They've worked really hard physically in the gym and on the field,

“There's good competition in the squad now in most positions, when we need to turn up the dial, we can do that - but, no, it's not a problem (having one game).”

Duffy and the rest of the coaching team will now turn their attention to the Dragons.

The Welsh region finished bottom of the URC last season with one win from 18 games.

“We just kind of remove some of the rust and some of the aspects that we'd hope to be a little bit more accurate,” he said. “The Dragons have got a lot of new players, I think 17 new players into the group...a lot of players

have got international experience.

“They'll be a tough opposition, as we know, we've just got to concentrate on ourselves.

"I suppose in the next two weeks and make sure we're in the best position possible to perform.”

Duffy is hoping some of the internationals that sat out the Edinburgh game will feature against the Dragons,

“We have a lot of big names as well to come back into the group – Rob Herring and we have Tom Stewart up front, Stuart MCloskey, Mike Lowry and Rob Baloucoune...so there's quite a lot of talent there as well to come through.”