Maul still big part of Ulster 'dominance' plan for Dan Soper
Ulster backs coach Dan Soper believes if the maul is working the province should utilise it to its full potential.
One of the reasons an artificial pitch was installed at Kingspan Stadium was to encourage Ulster to play an exciting attack brand of rugby – but the driving maul from lineouts still remains Richie Murphy’s most potent attacking weapon.
“Of course we want to play with the ball, we want to see guys like Mikey (Lowry) and Jacob (Stockdale), those sorts of guys, in wide spaces with the ball,” said Soper. "But the game is fundamentally about going forward.
"And when you can tie up a lot of players from the other team in one area of the pitch at a scrum or a maul and have some dominance there, it makes the job of the guys out wide easier because they have more space.
“The maul is an important part of the game and unique part of our game.
“Teams that have an effective maul generally do pretty well, it was great to see the work the guys have been putting in show progress on Saturday night.
“Jimmy's (Duffy) working hard with the boys and we're progressing.
“I actually thought despite, the result at the Bulls, a lot of the things we did with the ball were good and we were going in the right direction.
"But we were pretty disappointed with a lot of our attack on Saturday night (against Connacht).
"We went away from a lot of the principles we were working hard on and we allowed Connacht to come and get us and they did a great job at shutting us down...still looking for that consistency of attack.
"But from where we were in pre-season, we're making good progress.
“We were a wee bit disappointed with the things we did on Saturday, albeit it was a wet night but that was probably more reason for us to lean on the principles and fundamentals of what we build our attack on.”
Soper has been impressed with out half James Humphreys’ start to the season.
The son of former Ulster and Ireland No10 David, James has made two appearances off the bench, scoring points and setting up a try.
“He's really grown in confidence,” said Soper. “James has a strong skill set around his kicking and passing..you saw that in the Bulls game.”