Richie Murphy hails 'statement win' as superb Ulster sink Sharks in Durban to extend URC delight

The province finished 14th in the league last season but made it three bonus point wins from their opening three United Rugby Championship games off a win in Kings Park against a Sharks team that included 13 Springboks.

Tries arrived from Mike Lowry, Werner Kok, Tom Stewart and Callum Reid – with Nathan Doak converting all four and adding two penalties.

“Obviously, we're delighted to come over here and win and pick up five points,” said Murphy. “It's a really big statement win for us, especially against the quality of the Sharks team that they had out on the pitch.

“Very satisfied how we managed to stay in the fight, our set-piece wasn't going according to plan, but we stayed in the fight and off turnover ball we were very dangerous...so really happy with the way we transitioned and caused the Sharks a lot of trouble.

“Last week, we played the Bulls in the Affidea Stadium, that felt like a moment where we feel like we're going in the right direction.

“We've played four games this year, we've played one pre-season and three league games - and we've won all four.

"We haven't done that in a very long time either.

“I think you can see how much the players want to play for each other and the commitment they have to Ulster, which is huge.

“We'll keep pointing them in the right direction, there's loads of things from a coaching point of view that we feel we can still go after in order to get better...but we're very happy with how we're progressing at this stage.

“When you see the names on the teamsheet, you could easily give up them and go and think about maybe next week...but that's not the type of team that we want to be.

“We want to play against the best teams with their best players, that challenge has really galvanised our team.

“From my point of view, I just think we've shown a new side of what type of team we want to be – extremely committed, working hard for each other.

"We've a mix of a couple of older guys and some very young players...that experience today for the likes of Nathan, Jack Murphy, Scott Wilson, Tom Stewart - it's going to be huge.

“Joe Hope's coming off the bench for only second cap and gone into the second row for Iain Henderson.

“We're really pleased with the result, some of the performance really pleases us as well and how brave we are when we have the ball in our hand.

“Some of the defence I thought was excellent...but there's still plenty that we can get better at and we're going to need to with the teams we're going to face over the rest of the season - three out of three, pretty happy.

“Ulster, as a team, I think we're starting to show people the type of team that we want to be, it's really important that we build that.”