Ulster end-game woes but Richie Murphy looking at full picture for solutions

​Ulster had a 14-point lead against Cardiff and lost plus blew a 10-point advantage recently at the Aviva when facing Leinster.

“The games are different, the situations are different, we look at the reasons why we don't win, but we don't drag that just to the end of the game,” said Murphy. “There's other reasons through that...I think the big thing is as long as we perform to the level that we know we can - and we've shown throughout the year - and we stick to the process, those results will look after themselves.

"That's what we need to get back to.”

In both defeats Ulster lost a player to the sin bin in the last 10 minutes for deliberately knocking the ball on.“It goes without saying, it's a hell of a lot easier to play with 15 men than 14,” said Murphy.

Murphy feels the yellow cards have just been players reacting.

“You definitely can't, there's no time to think, it's split-second reactions," he said. “And everybody knows that you can't slap the ball down...but instinct and reaction take over, especially in such short spaces, short distances and spaces between players.

Despite losing two consecutive games Murphy isn’t going to change anything fundamentally for Connacht on Saturday.

“We deal in the process of the game, get the process right, we've got a great chance of winning the fixture at the end of the day,” he said. “Three games away between early December and over Christmas, two inter-pros away.

"It's a difficult period.”

“If you look around all the leagues, not a huge amount of teams are winning away from home, especially when they're playing teams that are very equal in quality.”

Murphy added: “We know we're in a position that we need to get a lot of things right to go down and win in Connacht and that's what our focus has been.”

Connacht go into the game in Galway after the recent humiliating defeat against the Dragons. It was the Welsh region’s first league win in 15 months and their first bonus point win in two-and-a-half years.

Murphy is expecting a backlash.

“Connacht will be massively physical, the best games that they've played at home they've dominated gain line,” said Murphy. “They've played on the front foot and teams haven't been able to deal with that, that's going to be a huge part of the game.

“They're obviously coming off a poor result at the weekend...with that in mind, they'll be extra dangerous because their awareness will be massively heightened around this game.

"Their need to win is huge, especially with the home advantage as well.”