Murphy laments 'missed opportunity' for Ulster
· Yahoo Sports
Ulster head coach Richie Murphy rued "a missed opportunity" for the Irish province after they went down 21-10 to Ospreys in Saturday's United Rugby Championship game between the sides at Brewery Field.
The outcome of the match was in the balance until the end, with the Welsh side prevailing to condemn their opponents, who drop to sixth in the table, to a fourth defeat of the campaign.
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Tries from Zac Ward and Tom Stewart helped Ulster to a 10-7 half-time lead.
James Ratti crashed over with 10 minutes remaining for the hosts and after Angus Bell's score was disallowed and Marcus Rea yellow-carded for a clear-out on Owen Watkin, Daniel Kasende crossed to ensure victory for Ospreys.
"We had an opportunity to put ourselves in a really good position in the league and we have missed it," Murphy told Premier Sports after the game.
"Massively disappointed but we came here and probably didn't put our best stuff together, we have to acknowledge that.
"Our set-piece wasn't good enough, our scrum and lineout didn't provide us with the platform to be able to play, so all credit has to go to Ospreys. They deserved their win."
Murphy said the decision of the referee, after consultation with the Television Match Official [TMO], to disallow Bell's late try and send Rea to the bin was a crucial one.
"I think it was a massive moment in the game. Rugby's in trouble if cleanouts like that near the goal-line end up the way they are. That decision went against us, there were a fair few others went against us as well.
"Ospreys looked after the ball really well and put us under a bit of pressure. I thought at times our defence was really good, we were coming off the line and made some really big impact tackles.
"Once we did get the ball we didn't have it for long enough and couldn't flip the field and put the pressure on Ospreys that they did on us."
The Ulster head coach refused to blame the conditions and playing surface for his team's loss.
"It's different for us, we're used to training and playing on 4G pitches now so playing on an old school heavy pitch is quite different, but that's not an excuse. We knew we were coming to it and we trained on a grass pitch on Tuesday just to get a feel for it."