'A class victory' - Van Graan delights in Belfast win

Munster head coach Johann van Graan hailed the resilience of his players after they ground out a vital away win against Ulster in Belfast.

Van Graan's side moved up to third place in the United Rugby Championship after they claimed a first win at Kingspan Stadium since 2016, defeating their Interprovincial rivals 24-17.

With so little separating those in playoff contention, Munster could have ended the weekend anywhere from second to eighth in the table.

And while the Stormers leapfrogged both Irish sides into the top two, it won't dampen the spirits of the Munster coach, whose side are now above Ulster in third on points differences, and well placed to earn a home quarter final.

"A class victory from our side, I believe," the Munster boss said afterwards.

"It was important for us as a group to back-up last week's performance [against Exeter] and I believe we did. This is such a difficult place to come and win. We haven’t won here for a number of seasons.

"We knew that it was going to be close and both sides were playing for a potential home advantage in a quarter-final. They are a team that we respect a lot. We had a big battle with them in January in a pretty tense game and they are extremely good with their kicking game.

"They suffocate you, they have got a brilliant maul and they have powerful runners and I thought all credit to JP [Ferreira], our defensive coach, and all the players. They really dug deep, specifically with 14 men [after Shane Daly was sin-binned], and really proud of the group to come way from here with a win. Very satisfying.

"We got two good tries and we started the second-half pretty well going 18-3 up. Then they applied the pressure. We conceded one or two penalties on our own ten-yard line with some