1
'I think it should have been a penalty try'
By PA
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland was proud of his side’s efforts in their “heartbreaking” defeat to La Rochelle but felt they were denied what could have been a decisive penalty try in the low-scoring clash.
Reigning champions La Rochelle snatched a dramatic 7-3 Heineken Champions Cup victory after replacement prop Joel Sclavi crashed over for a last-minute converted try at Stade Marcel Deflandre.
That consigned Ulster to a sixth defeat in their last seven games, including all three of their matches in the Heineken Champions Cup, but their battling performance in atrocious conditions in France has kept them in the hunt for a place in the last 16.
To reach the knock-out stages they will have to beat Sale Sharks at the Kingspan Stadium in the final round of pool games.
McFarland said following the defeat: “It’s heartbreaking, but the bottom line is I was really proud of what they produced.
“We’ve lost a game right at the end, but the bottom line is they’re European champions for a reason – they won that game, I don’t think we lost it.”
“They won because when they needed to, they produced the goods. It was tough going and I thought we were excellent.”
Ulster took the lead through Nathan Doak’s 63rd-minute penalty but McFarland feels they should already have been in front at that point.
He said: “I believe we should have had a penalty try when we were completely dominating them five metres from their line around 35 minutes. They got a yellow card.
“We had our moment when we were dominant and they offended so many times on those mauls that I think it should have been a penalty try.
“When they had theirs five metres out, they dominated enough to get the score and that was the difference.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Sam Simmonds' Montpellier replacement a blow for Wallabies – report
3
Camille Chat breaks silence on his immediate effect Racing 92 exit
4
Six players Rassie Erasmus must hand Springbok debuts to in 2025
5
Latest Comments
If Pollock is in the squad, who gets left out?
"I think the Eddie Jones style development player approach is whats called for"
(i) Why?
(ii) The churn of players under Eddie Jones was generally considered to be quite a bad thing. Do you want Guy Pepper, Ted Hill, Ben Curry, etc. to give up and go to France like Marchant did?
(iii) England already have a really young squad, and especially a young back row. If they do badly in the six nations Borthwick will probably lose his job, so shouldn't they prioritise winning in the short term and developing the players already in the squad, rather than bringing in newer, younger, guys?
(iv) England have a development tour in June. If you really want Pollock to be in the squad prior to graduating the u20s, why not wait until the summer?
Go to commentsWhen England's defence was able to get into shape it could be dominant though (especially in the game against NZ). Is the number of tackles really the main issue?
I get that making loads of tackles is tiring, but so is building multi-phase attacks. I'm just worried England would get tired out from attacking, then struggle to get set when they're subjected to counter attacks.
Go to comments