Richie Murphy: Ulster ready to right the wrongs of last season

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A new culture within the camp gives Richie Murphy optimism for new season

Despite last season's lowly 14th place finish, Richie Murphy says that Ulster will embrace the new season with optimism.

Murphy was speaking ahead of Friday night's opening game against the Dragons at the Affidea Stadium and after what he describes as having a really good pre-season, Murphy says that he and his squad are keen to right the wrongs of last year.

"We've had a really good pre-season," said Murphy.

"We've spent a number of weeks, I think it was eight or nine weeks more or less in pre-season with a couple of breaks on either side, or in the middle.

"A lot of work has gone in and around our defence, which obviously last season wasn't good enough. We've done a lot of work on the attack side of the ball as well, and trying to build some real consistency and competition between the squad.

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"If you watched training this morning, you would think that competition is high, high availability of players, obviously those long-term injured, we haven't had them for a while, so we're used to them at the moment not being around. With academy players coming in, we're building some good training sessions, some good competition within that."

Last year's campaign concluded in May, but the storm clouds that had gathered over Murphy's first full term in charge took their time to clear. It all led to a difficult end-of season review. It wasn't pretty but it was something that had to be addressed quickly and before the team broke for the summer.

And as Murphy explains, it was a review that brought up issues both on and off the rugby field.

"Definitely, end-of-season review was robust and it was tough, and we've picked out a number of points that we've gone after. I'm not going to announce what we're going to do, but that's built into our pre-season. Things on the pitch and things off the pitch as well.

"Culturally, I think we look like we're in a better place. We've got a squad, especially the young players who are a little bit older, it's still very obvious that in certain positions we have inexperienced players. We've got young, talented players, but they don't have massive experience.

"In other areas, we have loads of experience and they're the people that we have to lean on in those situations. Getting the balance right for each match is going to be huge. Having a high availability of players will allow us to mix and match over these early weeks in order to reward people who are going well in training and form a competitive squad going forward."

Ulster edged a close encounter in Newport towards the end of last season, but the Dragons team that they faced last March is likely to bear any resemblance to the one they faced in that dramatic 34-30 victory.

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A game that helped to confine the Welsh side to bottom spot in the URC.

"They've obviously played two games in pre-season, which we've had a look at.

"They've had two decent wins, beat Scarlet's, a strong Scarlet's team at home. They've brought in, I think, 14 new players, and a number of them are ex-internationals as well. They're bringing more experience in. Their pack has looked quite good.

"They've been dominant in and around the mall. Scrum has been sloppy, but they've been getting a few penalties out of that. There'll be a bit of pressure on our forward pack, and it's really important that we get a quality possession so that we can play the type of rugby that we want to play."