'We have to make it work to make it worthwhile that Dan had to lose his job'

Dan Soper.

ULSTER ASSISTANT DAN Soper believes the bonus-point win over the Dragons at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday night is only the first step in justifying the “drastic actions” undertaken by the northern province in recent weeks.

After a run of six losses in nine games, Dan McFarland was sacked last week with Soper taking charge of this weekend’s victory before Ireland U20s boss Richie Murphy arrives on an interim basis until the end of the season following the conclusion of the Six Nations.

Ulster had actually fallen to tenth place in the URC table before kick-off but their seven-try triumph hauled them back into fifth, with Soper stressing it is the squad’s responsibility in the weeks and months ahead to show the mid-season coaching change has been “worthwhile”.

“The turmoil that happened last week, the head coach changing, that’s really unfortunate for Dan,” said Soper who worked under McFarland through the Englishman’s entire tenure.

“It’s sad that someone had to lose their job, but there is a sense of a line in the sand, that this is us now.

“It’s unfortunate that you have to go through the drastic actions that we’ve gone through but we have to make it work to make it worthwhile that Dan had to lose his job.

“That’s our responsibility.”

While Soper had said in the build-up that he wouldn’t expect Wayne Smith to wholly transform a side in the space of one training week, he was happy with the improvements his side displayed in terms of basic skills as well as their attacking intent.

Worse than the results themselves in McFarland’s final weeks were the swathes of errors made through their losses against Harlequins and Ospreys.

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Of course the opposition were of a lower standard, but there was still a greater confidence to Ulster’s game with the likes of Will Addison, Billy Burns and player of the match Jude Postlethwaite in particular showing some nice touches.

“I loved the ambition that we played with and I really liked how we kicked in the first-half,” said Soper.

“Early on we put some really nice kicks down the edge and that allowed us to be in the right areas of the park.

“Maybe at times we’ve overplayed in our own half and we brought pressure on ourselves.

“Tonight, in the backs in particular, I thought there were some good decisions early that put us in good areas.

“I enjoyed the ambition that they showed on penalty advantage. We were trying to keep the ball alive but not loosely.

“I thought the leaders spoke really well beforehand. Will (Addison) made a point to the backs in their chat before the game and he said ‘the only thing we need to worry about is our breakdown and the catch-pass quality, if we get those two things right, we’ve got everything else’

“By and large that was pretty good. There’s always going to be wee errors but I thought it was okay.

“There’s an energy and excitement that you want to be a part of and I really enjoyed seeing that from the guys tonight.”

Murphy will arrive in time to lead Ulster’s two-game trip to South Africa where they’ll play the Sharks in Durban and Stormers in Cape Town. Having ended a three-game, two-month wait for a win against the Dragons, there was finally some cause for celebration around BT6 with Soper hoping the upcoming trip provides not only an opportunity for the players to get better acquainted with their interim head coach but also to press forward with what worked well on Saturday night.

“That’s a happy changing room down there at the moment,” he added.

“We asked for energy, we asked for competitiveness and if we could get those things we thought we’d enjoy it.

“There were a lot of smiling faces out on the pitch and it was a good night for us.

“We did a lot of things really well, there were a lot of things we didn’t do so well, but there’s a real resolve in the group.

“They want that as the benchmark and they want to kick on from that.

“Let’s hope that’s the case.

“We’ll enjoy that tonight, we’ve a week off next week, and we’ll get a week’s training down before we head out there.

“I know we haven’t always won but we’ve done okay out there. The guys are looking forward to it.

“They want to push their game on and it’s maybe quite a nice thing to get away as a group, see the sun for a couple of weeks, and see if we can push things on a bit further.”