Richie Murphy delighted as Ulster overcome Montpellier Challenge to seal place in European Challenge Cup quarter-finals

It was only a second win in seven games for Ulster and Murphy’s first since taking over the Kingspan hotseat after Dan McFarland’s departure.

The victory sets up a quarter-final with Clermont at the Stade Marcel-Michelin at the weekend.

Ulster scored 33 unanswered points in the second half as Montpellier’s discipline disintegrated, the hosts shipping a red card, three yellows and a penalty try after leading 17-7 at the break.

Murphy said: “Happy to be there (quarter-final). We probably weren’t at our best and that is a little bit disappointing, but we also showed some good character in the second half to try and get ourselves back into the game.

“Some of that was helped by a red card and a couple of yellows but when that did happen we managed to put enough good phases together to see the game out, which is pleasing, but we have a lot of work to do.

“It's knock-out rugby, it's about winning games. In this competition, we don't need anything else bar a win at the end of the day.

“In my time, I've only been here two weeks, we hadn't won yet. In that regard, I'm really happy to get my first victory.

“We'll look back at it because we need to be better in our decision-making elements and some of our ability to look after the ball,” he added.

“If we can fix those going into Clermont, we'll have a great chance over there.”

Reflecting on the first half, Murphy said Ulster appeared to be somewhat jaded.

“We talked at half-time about the fact that we hadn't been that accurate in the first half, our breakdown was quite poor,” he said.

“Our energy levels looked a little bit off in comparison to last week, but I suppose some of that may be down to coming back in to South Africa.

“At half-time the guys were pretty focused that there was more in them in the second half.

“The performance wasn't the performance I was looking for. We wanted to back up the decent performance we had against the Stormers and take another step in that direction.

“We probably didn't quite get there but we showed some good character to stick together and get the win.”

Murphy had special praise for Queen’s prop Scott Wilson who came off the bench to score his first Ulster try.

“Scotty has been really good, he takes everything in his stride,” he said.

“We're constantly talking to him about things he can keep on improving.

“He's got a good attitude and there's not too many 21-year-old tighthead props playing at this level or URC level so it shows you how competent he is.”

Ulster now turn their attention to the away trip against Clermont.

Murphy said: “We'll dust ourselves down, review hard and try and build a good feeling.

“It's a quarter-final in Europe, it's not necessarily the competition we want to be in but it's a great opportunity to try and get into the latter stages.”