Stuart McCloskey accepts Ulster criticism but says negativity is back-handed compliment

Not only the result but the manner of Sunday’s home reversal against Munster saw fans questioning the management and players as Ulster once again capitulated after looking on course for victory.

Ulster have achieved European knockout rugby in the last four seasons – including a semi-final in the Challenge Cup – while in the same period have reached a domestic final and two semi-finals.

Ireland midfielder McCloskey said: “Some of it is probably quite justified in a way. Over the last two years people have come to expect good performances out of the team.

“It is nice in a way that people are annoyed when we have lost three of the last four games. In 2017 we could barely get a win and struggled to get into Europe so it is nice in a way that we have got to a place where people are expecting us to be getting top two in the league and home quarter-finals in Europe.

“Some of it is very justified, so of course it can be a bit harsh but listen, you are going to get that in any sport.

“I don’t get too stressed about these things,” he added.

“What we are saying is, everybody concentrate on doing their own job well, concentrate on their own things and not worry about big picture stuff as much – just do your role which I don’t think we were doing that well over the last four weeks."

McCloskey has been playing through the pain barrier in recent games after suffering a dead leg.

“I have barely trained for a month because of my leg, I have just about been playing games,” he said.

“I had a real bad dead leg against Sale in about the third minute. I have been just going game to game and I basically didn’t train for three to four weeks.

“It feels good now that’s it over. This is the first Tuesday I have been able to train for a while, so that is nice and maybe I’ll be able to get more consistency with the team rather than just watching for a few days and playing.”

McCloskey feels Ulster are well equipped to get out of their recent slump.

“[At the] start of the year we were going well and there were a lot of good results, obviously you are going to have dips in form.

“Some of the results we have had knocked the wind out of our sails – the second half against Leinster. You had Sale – I know it was an absolute shambles getting over there and playing that game, but we should still be putting in a better performance than that and it feels like we are still a wee but hungover from that in terms of our performances.

“I still feel the confidence is good going forward for a team that has played far below its level as we have in the last two or three weeks, we are still there or thereabouts.”