Ulster hooker John Andrew warns Ulster need improvement

Ulster concluded their pre-season programme with a 36-33 defeat against Glasgow at Scotstoun and Andrew wasn’t happy with some of the tries Ulster coughed up.

“Even though it is a friendly you don’t want to lose any games especially against a team that will probably be up there at the end of the season like last year,” said Andrew.

“Everybody knows Glasgow are a good team, we started well but let them back into the game and their crowd got behind them once they made a couple of big carries and a couple of big hits.

“We sort of quietened down at times when we needed to grow into the game.

“It was much tougher than last week, they had a few boys back and it was definitely a lot tougher and faster on the 3G.

“It was a good game - we just need to work on our maul defence which gave them a few tries, which is a bit easy for us to let them do that.”

Coach Dan McFarland also admitted there are improvements to be made before the Welsh region arrive in Belfast.

“Disappointing in the end not to win but it was a good hit out,” he said.

“They were very physical, they had all their players back involved and it was a really good test for us. We have got a couple of things to work on and we also showed glimpses of what we are capable of and that is encouraging.

“We have been here before and started off well and ended up being well beaten in the end but this time it was competitive all the way through,” he added.

“There were quite a lot of mistakes for us and them in the game, they improved as the game went on and hung onto the ball whereas we turned the ball over a couple of times in the second half.

“They are a really good team and aggressive and are very quick, so it is difficult when you give the ball up.”

RGlasgow coach Dave Rennie said: “I’m happy with the win.

“They are a good side Ulster so it was a real arm wrestle and could have gone either way.”

Ulster raced into a 12-0 lead with Rob Herring and Rob Lyttle scoring tries with John Cooney converting one.

Glasgow replied with 17 unanswered points to hold a five points advantage at the break, they were awarded a penalty try as Ulster collapsed a maul on their own line for which Jordi Murphy received a yellow card. Rory Hughes also crossed and Brad Thomson added a conversion and a penalty.

The sides exchanged converted tries at the start of the second half Stuart McCloskey went over for Ulster with Johnny Matthews crossing for the Warriors.

Ulster were awarded a penalty try but the home side hit back with a converted Glen Bryce try.

James Hume’s converted try gave Ulster a 33-31 lead but prop Andy Nicholl won it for Glasgow with a late try.