Ulster coach Dan McFarland insisted his side will not fall into a “swamp of self pity” after the chastening 39-0 Heineken Champions Cup defeat by Sale.
McFarland agreed the Irish province had been outplayed by Sale but said they had no option but to regroup for next Saturday’s home game with La Rochelle.
“There’s not enough time [for self pity] in a six-day turnaround when you are playing the European champions next,” said the Ulster coach.
“We’ve certainly got to find our mojo.”
After squandering a 22-3 lead when losing in Dublin against Leinster nine days ago, Sunday’s defeat was an even more painful experience for McFarland’s side.
The Ulster coach admitted that the European game had been “one of the least enjoyable” days of his four-year tenure.
“Physically we struggled against them all over the park. I don’t think there were any areas of the game where we got a handle on them for any length of time.
“They were excellent not only in the physicality but also in the execution of their play. It was really good and it put us under a lot of pressure in defence.”
McFarland’s under-pressure side conceded a succession of penalties which enabled Sale to completely dominate territory.
“Obviously the amount of territory you give away to a team of their size, they are always going to punish you and they surely did,” added the Ulster coach.
Both McFarland and centre Stuart McCloskey refused to use the squad’s weekend travel difficulties as an excuse for the display.
Ulster’s planned flight to Manchester on Saturday was cancelled because of snow in the north of England which meant the squad had to fly on Sunday morning.
“We’ve done those kind of things before – probably not at Champions Cup level,” added McFarland.
“It’s not ideal preparation but you get on with it. It doesn’t explain why they were 30-odd points better than us.”
Asked about criticism that is certain to follow Sunday’s thumping, McFarland said that “120 minutes of not playing great….doesn’t turn you into a bad team surely”.
“This is a side that’s done a lot over a chunk of time,” he insisted.
McCloskey made no attempt hide his disappointment after the defeat.
“We were right off basically. It’s one of those ones that we’ll try and get over and forget about it and move on to next week,” said the Ireland player.
“It’s a pretty short turnaround to La Rochelle. A pretty big game against the European champions and we’ll probably need to win that [to maintain hopes in the competition].”
Toothless Ulster
McCloskey admitted that Ulster’s performance on Sunday was littered with woes.
“I couldn’t even say we had really good chances. They disrupted our maul which is a pretty good go-to for us.
“Some of the set plays were a wee fraction off and they kept the ball really well.
“They got a lot of turnovers which ruined the breakdown and seemed to get a penalty every third phase so it was hard to put anything together.
Asked about how Ulster will move on from failing to score a point at the AJ Bell Stadium, McCloskey was at a loss to come up with a response.
“Good question. I don’t actually know. I couldn’t tell you. I’ve never really experienced a defeat like that. It’s going to be tough. La Rochelle are the European champions.
“But Kingspan has always been good to us and hopefully we’ll pull out a good performance and get back on track.”
