Stephen Ferris: Ulster’s mauling by the Bulls was a tough watch but days like that happen during a rebuild

Look, there was plenty of heart, plenty of endeavour, plenty of energy put in over the last two weeks but Ulster need to be able to somehow be more competitive with teams like the Bulls and others when away from home.

Richie Murphy no doubt had it in the back of his mind that he would play this team against the Bulls and for the coach, this is a long-term project and I guess he had to use this mini tour to blood in some of the young guys and say 'look, this is what professional rugby is all about' and essentially see what the young guys are made of.

It would be easy to just be negative having watched what was on show in Pretoria, but I suppose this is the reality of where Ulster are at now and rebuilds are going to take time and bring some difficult days.

I can see that Richie has made some progress here with bringing guys through but physically it's difficult watching them having these issues though I suppose that's what you'd expect against a team stuffed full of Springboks and Murphy has been brought in to do a specific job, to build a team at Ulster over the next three or four years.

So, you have the situation over the last couple of games where he has put guys in situations where he can see who takes steps forward and who doesn't so that they can be encouraged or just given a kick up the backside and left out for a while to work on getting better.

Looking directly at the game, I thought the Bulls weren't hitting top gear and even at that Ulster were struggling especially at set-piece time which is a familiar enough thing for them but was particularly noticeable here.

In fairness I think a lot of the Ulster players stand up and can do really good things when they have the ball, like James McNabney is such a good carrier, but crucially I reckon we can talk about people with the ball but we're not talking about anybody without the ball.

You know, dominating defensively and that's where you see all the really good teams shine. Great with the ball but also very effective when they don't have it with defensive leaders like Garry Ringrose at Leinster.

Without that and without a decent amount of dominant tackles being put in you are going to be on the back-foot so much of the time that it's just going to be such a struggle.

It's difficult to put your finger on why Ulster's players just don't have that edge and as such they are not a really difficult team to play against just where they are at the moment.

They'll score points alright but they're not going to run over the top of most oppositions and physically dominate at the breakdown where they can struggle to get turnovers.

More intensity and physicality must be found but one thing I will say is that there has been improvement from the first game against Glasgow albeit they did win that game.

Yes, they've lost the last two games, but they have got themselves together for half an hour or so in both matches to show something.

Against Glasgow, their attack wasn't good, and they defended for their lives while their pick and jam game got them out of trouble in the end where now it looks like they have added some extra strings to their bow in attack which is something we have seen in South Africa and hopefully that will serve them well against Connacht next up.

So, the positive is that they have built upon their performances and have blooded more young guys in, but the flip side is that they have coughed up big scores in South Africa and, frankly, that was a bit of a drubbing at the Bulls.

The reality is that Ulster are conceding too many points and that they lack that hard edge defensively and that must change if they're going to make inroads against top teams.

Richie will, of course, know this and that he's got quite a job on his hands.

Stephen Ferris is part of the Premier Sports team bringing every Ulster game live from the BKT United Rugby Championship throughout the season.

Tune in next Saturday night as Ulster return home from their South African adventure to play Connacht at Ravenhill (8.00pm).

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