IT WAS ALWAYS likely to be a difficult task against a team that had lost just one of the 20 games they had played in all competitions this season, but Ulster’s cause in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening wasn’t helped by a considerable injury toll.

After Stuart McCloskey was ruled out a short while before kick-off in their eventual 41-17 defeat to interprovincial rivals Leinster in the URC, Stewart Moore was promoted from the bench to take his spot at inside centre. However, the Ballymoney native was subsequently replaced 16 minutes into the action and this was followed by the withdrawal of fullback Michael Lowry on a stretcher just past the first-quarter mark.

There was further injury concern when both starting loosehead Callum Reid and his replacement in the front-row, Andrew Warwick, were forced off the field of play in the 39th and 62nd minutes respectively.

Speaking after the game, Ulster head coach Richie Murphy offered a sense of what he and his backroom team had to contend with on the night.

“Obviously losing Stu McCloskey before the game is difficult and then losing Stu Moore in the game to concussion is obviously difficult. He [McCloskey] picked up a little bit of a tight groin during the week. We were hoping that he would come through and be ready, but it was felt during the warm-up that he wasn’t quite right and it was wrong to play him. We pulled him at that stage,” Murphy explained.

Michael Lowry thankfully seems to be okay. He’s in hospital, but he’s okay. The scans have come back quite clear and two looseheads have struggled towards the back end of the game.

“Callum Reid is [a] knee. I don’t know exactly what it is in his knee, but he’s definitely knee and Andy Warwick had a neck thing going on. A big toll I suppose, but we just have to see where we are on Monday and go from there.”

As a consequence of suffering their eighth reversal in 15 games, Ulster now occupy 10th spot in the URC standings on 37 points – two places and three points adrift of the top-eight.

Losing out to Leinster by 24 points in advance of their remaining league fixtures against the Sharks (home), Munster and Edinburgh (both away) could potentially affect the morale within the Ulster camp.

Yet Murphy will nevertheless look to glean as many positives as he can from a game against a side that had held both Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors scoreless in the European Champions Cup over the previous fortnight.

Additionally, the Wicklow man – a former Leinster player who later became the province’s skills and kicking coach – also pointed to some areas where he felt his opponents could have been penalised over the course of the contest.

“I think we’ll just move on. We scored 17 points against them. No one has scored for the last couple of weeks against them.

That gives us something. Going in there, we had a bit of a plan. We couldn’t quite execute it. Again, it comes down to trying to create that quick ruck ball off that first, second phase,” Murphy added.

“Massive effort from our lads, you see it all the way to the end of the game. Something that over the last number of weeks that I think is really starting to come to the fore. Very proud of the effort. There is definitely things in our game that we can improve pretty quickly and some things that just frustrate us in or around breakdown.

“Their line speed is incredible, but is it always coming from an onside position? I’d question that. The scrum dominance they had in the first half, we didn’t feel that was right. We felt they were stepping around the corner and the breakdown? Go and have a look yourself.”