Ulster squad depth key for Dan Soper

​The win over the South Africans by 24-17 at the Kingspan Stadium put Ulster top of the table overnight.

“If you have of said at the start of the year at the end of the first five games we’d have four wins it would be a pretty good outcome,” said Soper following the home success.

“We’ll look more at the quality of what we are doing but we are in a results business.

"And that is how we aare measured.

“It is our job as coaches to dig a bit deeper and beyond just the result and look at what is going well on our performance and what is not going so well and what we need to work on.”

“Four wins out of five is really good.

"But we have got lots that we need to get better at.”

Lorcan McLoughlin was the latest player this season to make his Ulster debut and Soper has been pleased with the squad depth the province has shown across the opening month of the season.

“We have seen a huge number of players playing and a lot of guys - the obvious one that jumps is Scott Wilson - you have Lorcan, Reuben (Crothers) and young guys like that are getting their opportunity and stepping up.

“They are getting to the level that we need them so what that means for us now five games in is we have got a lot of guys that we know we can go to him, we can go to him and they are at that level.”

“That competition is going to be good...it is going to be good for us.

“Some players suit some games too but is a bit of horses for courses.

“Off the back of having such a long pre-season it was really important that we got the bulk of the squad involved in the early season.

“I think we have done that.

"if you use Scotty as an example, he is probably one that we didn’t see quite getting to the level that he has but he has and that is excellent for us because it brings a bit more competition into the group.”

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