'We found a way to play' - Ulster second-half delight as Richie Murphy highlights young players' URC progress in Edinburgh

Richie Murphy’s side had trailed 19-14 at the break despite converted tries from Charlie Irvine and Juarno Augustus but scored 26 unanswered points after the interval with touch downs from Jake Flanney, Scott Wilson, Ben Carson and Conor McKee.

Ulster move on to 41 points, already surpassing last season’s final tally of 38 with six games left to play. Murphy’s men also hold the honour of top points scorers in the league.

Murphy was thrilled to leave the Hive Stadium with maximum points.

“Absolutely delighted, five points over here, we knew how tough it was going to be coming over,” he said. “Half-time, five points down, playing into the wind, we didn't feel like we got off to a great start.

“A couple of penalties earlier on put us back in the corner, put us under pressure, we didn't feel that our contact work, our tackle quality and also our speed of arrival at the break down was very good.

“That gave them access into the game, we stuck in it, with loads of changes in that second half, we found a way to play some really, really good rugby.

"Absolutely delighted with some of those young lads.”

Ulster had conceded three tries in the first half but Murphy’s message at the interval saw the side come out and play free-flowing rugby as they put struggling Edinburgh to the sword.

“The key message at half-time was around the quality of our contact area both attack and defence,” said Murphy. “Our tackle, we were loose, we still left guys on their feet...in the second half we tackled a lot better but also our break down became much better.

“Much more on the front foot the way we played the game, some of the carrying from our forwards, especially some of the young forwards like Charlie Irvine, Scottie Wilson when he came on in the second half.

“The quality of the young Tom McAllister, first cap and tight head against a really good scrummager in Bo Venter, gave us a really solid platform that we were able to play off.

“Loads of really good bits...we're up to second in the league so we're going in the right direction.

"It's really important now we refocus and get on to next week.”

Ulster welcome Connacht to Belfast on Friday night – their first home game in nearly two months.

Murphy’s side will be looking to do a league double over the western province to keep the pressure on league leaders Glasgow.

“Every week we'll have the same conversation...every game in a league scenario is really, really important,” he said. “Connacht, I think we've beaten them the last three times we've played them, they'll have a lot to play for, they had a good win against the Scarlets.

“We just have to dust ourselves down probably and then refocus in and get ready for next week.”