Mentality is key for Ulster’s Jordi Murphy

Murphy scored a try in Chicago as Ireland beat the All Blacks for the first ever time, while at Leinster he won the European Cup and three Pro14 titles.

After Ulster’s exit from Europe last week by a single point on aggregate to Toulouse, Murphy insists he sees nothing different in the mentality of the Ulster dressing room to the successful sides he’s played on, and that Dan McFarland’s side are getting close to landing the silverware that has eluded the club since 2006.

“I don’t think there’s anything missing there,” said Murphy

“We’re knocking on that door but we’re just coming up against really top sides and like I said that (playing top sides) is where we feel we should be.

“We’re getting ourselves in position where we can contest in these knockout games but just haven’t quite got there yet.

“I don’t see anything missing, I think the squad has gone from strength to strength over the last number of years and it’s great to be part of it.

“It’s obviously ultimately very disappointing to be out of the Champions Cup but we’re in the league now and fully focused on that and hoping to finish out the league campaign strongly and get ourselves into some more knockout games.

“If we’re critical and we look back at the game (against Toulouse) there were a couple of occasions where maybe there are small lapses in concentration or things like that, and against the top sides and especially if it’s over 160 minutes.

“You really need to be on it for the whole 160 minutes.

“Look there are plenty of things that could have happened at the weekend, if certain things had gone our way or if we’d cleaned up one or two things but it’s hard to go back and try and fix something that’s already happened.

“However, going forward we just need