Jonny ​Petrie accepts fan frustration over Ulster results run

Munster won the United Rugby Championship the hard way.

After losing five of their first seven games, the Thomond Park club reached the play-offs, beat Glasgow away in the quarter-finals, Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in the last four and the Stormers in the decider in Cape Town – ending their 12-year wait for silverware.

Meanwhile, Ulster are still empty-handed since 2006.

Dan McFarland’s side, who finished second in the regular season league table and had home advantage in the quarter finals, would have hosted a semi-final at Kingspan Stadium and, as it transpired, a home final.

But that all ended as Connacht won the quarter-final clash in Belfast.

Ulster chief executive Jonny Petrie acknowledges the frustration of another season that promised much but, ultimately, failed to deliver.

“It was a disappointing finish and we definitely recognise that going from a couple of years ago to you get to a final, next year you get to a semi-final and this year we get to a quarter-final and that has been frustrating for us,” said Petrie. “I think the manner in which we exited the competition this year...everybody was pretty hacked off to be honest and fair play to Connacht, they came and played very well up here, that was one that we should have won and it was disappointing to go out at that stage.

“Alongside that you have to place it in context around some of the progress that we did see this year, we have gone from third to second in the league classification, we scored more tries than the year before, we finished with more points.

“There is progress but, ultimately, you are judged by where you get to in the competition and we recognise that was earlier than where we should have been.

“You want to put yourself in the mix but, ultimately, you want to be winning these knockout matches.

"And it was pretty frustrating for all of us that we didn’t do that this year against Connacht.”

Petrie can understand the fans’ anger as Ulster’s wait for a trophy goes into an 18th season and the backlash on social media after the Connacht defeat.

“People are entitled to their opinion around these things, and I think you have to take a balanced view around it and I am very aware of the depth of feeling,” said Petrie. “I always say I’d rather people cared about it than didn’t care about it, it can be a very polarising black or white thing.

"You are judged on whether you win or lose and people that spend their money to come and watch us play are rightly pissed off when we lose matches that we should be winning.

“So, it is not a case of trying to distance yourself from the negative comments that you get.

"I think it is important that we listen, we engage and we take on board reasonable feedback and we’ll look at how we’ll continue to improve.

“We know there are areas that we need to be better in next year if we are to carry through and realise what is our aim and win silverware.

"So we need to keep going on that.”