McLaughlin lauds Ulster stars
Ulster head coach Brian McLaughlin hailed a truly ‘outstanding’ performance from his troops after they crushed European giants Leicester Tigers 41-17 in the Heineken Cup on Friday.
McLaughlin’s men defeated the former double Heineken Cup kings as they bettered a remarkable 33-0 victory over the same opposition at the same venue just over eight years ago.
A brace of tries from Andrew Trimble and one apiece from Craig Gilroy and Paul Marshall secured a maximum five-point return in what almost everyone at Ravenhill described as one of the most complete Ulster performances in living memory.
“That’s certainly right up there with the best performances in my time here,” said McLaughlin, whose team top Pool 4 with 19 points.
“We’ve had some great displays in my three years but that was fantastic. The boys were unbelievable. From the first whistle to the last, they played consistently well and everyone was outstanding.”
Ulster controlled every facet of a remarkable encounter that had been expected to be a tight affair given Leicester’s 20-9 triumph at Welford Road back in November.
They more than matched the Tigers up front; defensively they limited Leicester to very little and their four tries came from members of their backline.
“If you’re singling out one thing tonight, you’d single out the scrum,” added McLaughlin.
“When you think of Leicester you think of their setpiece and their set scrum but our scrum was outstanding. You have to give a big hand to all of our pack – their scrummaging and the way they got around the park was brilliant.
“When you’re playing Leicester, you know they’re going to come at you very aggressively. We worked very hard in and around that 10 channel because Leicester have targeted us there in the past. All credit to (defence coach) Jonny Bell – he’s worked incredibly hard with the lads. They’ve bought into his system, they’ve bought into his structure and I think you saw that out there tonight.
“Our attack tonight was great as well. The work that (attack coach) Neil Doak is doing with the attack is superb. The boys are enjoying their training, they’re enjoying the way they play and we feel we’re on a god roll.
“To get a bonus point against Leicester is something we can talk about and something we can glean great confidence from for the future.
“That’s the kind of rugby that we’ve been building towards from the outset.”
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