Richie Murphy wants Ulster to turn Ravenhill into a fortress this season after his teamed started the United Rugby Championship with a maximum five points following a 42-21 victory over the Dragons.

Ulster scored six tries on opening night in front of their home fans - last season Murphy’s side lost four league games and European Champions Cup tie in Belfast.

The coach knows that record must improve if the province want to reach the knockout stages in the league this season.

“I don’t think any team in the league will think that it is ok for people to come to their home ground and win,” said Murphy. “That Dragons team are tough, they are always very physical they are a real good chop-tackling team and probably don’t get the credit for what they do.

placeholder image — Ulster head coach Richie Murphy. (Photo by Liam McBurney/PA Wire)

"They have brought in a few players, probably stronger than they have been in previous seasons...so we are happy with that win.”

“When we are at home, I think it is important that we play some really good rugby in order to get people through the gates and get them in behind us and supporting the team.”

Murphy was happy with five points but admitted it was far from the perfect performance as Ulster conceded a try after only 12 seconds.

“Firstly, we are delighted with five points and that is exactly what we wanted, I thought at times we played some really good rugby,” he said. “We probably didn’t finish enough at times, we created some really good opportunities...last pass, that kind of stuff, so plenty to work on there.

“Defensively at times I thought we looked better, but we are disappointed to concede three tries.

"I thought up to Nathan Doak’s try (Ulster’s fifth) we looked really good then the game broke up.

"There were a couple injuries and the game slowed down and we kind of lost our way a little bit.

“So it is something that we really need to work hard on...when the game stops and there are stoppages in the game, how we regain momentum and keep playing to space and keep doing the things that we are trying to do during the week in training.”

Murphy hailed the influence of new attack coach Mark Sexton, who he had previously worked with at Ireland U20s level.

“It’s the whole team, their ability to get up off the ground to move faster, to get into position quicker and then to have the ability, skill set and vision to move those balls into the outside channels,” he said. “There is no doubt that no matter which winger plays for Ulster throughout our senior squad they are all extremely dangerous and massive running threats, so getting the ball into their hands is something that we want to do.

“I thought we looked a bit rocky after we conceded that first try but once we settled in and got some phases we scored a really good try from a scrum that started way back in our own half, multiple movement of the ball, multiple phases and changes of direction.

"And we always looked like we were in control of what we were doing, so that was very satisfying.

“A lot of that work has been done by Mark since he has come in...he has taken our shape and the way we play and moved it forward a bit and we are really happy with that.”