Richie Murphy: Uncertainty on Ulster job opens up speculation

Having made it clear when he took over from Dan McFarland that he would be happy to take the Ulster job on a full-time basis, there have been reports circulating this week linking Japan-based South African Frans Ledeke to the head coaching job at Ravenhill.

“It probably has an effect on other people more so than me,” Murphy said regarding the speculation surrounding what Ulster intend to do going forward.

“I'm quite happy with what I'm doing. I suppose when there's not certainty, it opens up to speculation.

“But speculation, I can't deal with that.

He continued: “I need to prepare the team on a Monday, a Tuesday and a Thursday to get them ready for Friday. I deal with the team and I'm worrying about how we can be good enough to win on Friday nights.

“I don't really pay much attention to what's going on in the background.

“I have had conversations with Ulster and they've all been positive towards next year so it's still at that stage,” he added.

Murphy’s son Jack has also been linked this week with joining Ulster from Leinster and the interim head coach admitted that there have been talks which could see the Ireland U20s out-half coming to Belfast.

“The latest is he's been talking to Ulster, definitely,” said Murphy.

“He hasn't signed any contracts or anything like that.

“He's looking at college options and we'll see how that progresses over the next couple of weeks.”

As for the team’s victory on Friday night, he described it as a “Jekyll and Hyde” performance.

“I’m very happy with the win,” said Murphy, “and at times we played some very good rugby but on the other side of that we are a little bit Jekyll and Hyde, some really good stuff and some ugly stuff that cost us badly.”

“There have been some good performances, but we haven’t quite finished anything, and this feels like we’re getting better, but we didn’t quite finish it,” said Murphy after watching Ulster let Benetton back into the game from what appeared a secure position in the second half.

“Some of the tries come from bad decisions in our attack and Will (Addison) will understand this and his offload has cost us seven points when we were in the position of controlling the game and that’s a decision he’s made, he doesn’t mean to make the mistake but it’s a mistake and it’s something we’ve had in our game for the last number of weeks.”