Ulster head coach Richie Murphy says his side's 34-26 win over the Sharks in Dublin represents a statement of intent by the Irish province.
Ulster head coach Richie Murphy described his side's 34-26 victory over the Sharks in Durban as "a big statement win".
The impressive bonus-point win after an incident-packed game ensured the Irish province maintained their 100% start to their United Rugby Championship campaign by making it three wins out of three.
"We're delighted to come over here and win and pick up five points. It's a really big statement win for us, especially against the quality of the Sharks side that they had on the pitch," said Murphy.
"Our set-piece wasn't going to plan but we stayed in the fight and off turnover ball we were very dangerous.
"So really happy with the way we transitioned and caused the Sharks a lot of trouble."
Ulster's success follows on from wins at home to the Dragons and Bulls, with the Lions next up next Saturday before the international break.
"It feels like we're going in the right direction. We've played four games this season, including one pre-season, and won all four. We haven't done that in a very long time.
"I think you can see how much the players want to play for each other and the commitment they have to Ulster, which is huge.
"We'll keep pointing them in the right direction. There are loads of things from a coaching point of view that we feel we can still go after in order to get better, but very happy with how we're progressing at this stage."
The Sharks welcomed five Springboks into their line-up but remain winless as their indiscipline proved costly, Vincent Koch and Mapimpi being yellow-carded for lifting tackles on Michael Lowry, with the latter upgraded to a 20-minute red card after a bunker review.
"When you see the names on the teamsheet you could easily give up then and maybe think about next week but that's not how we want to be, we want to play against the best teams.
"That challenge has really galvanised our team and from my point of view I think we've shown a new side of the team that we want to be - extremely committed, working hard for each other.
"We've a mix of a couple of older guys and some very young players and the experience for those guys today is going to be huge."
Lowry, Werner Kok, Tom Stewart and Callum Reid all crossed for the visitors, with Nathan Doak kicking 14 points.
"We're really pleased with the result, some of the performance really pleases us as well and how brave we are when we have the ball in our hand. Some of our defence I thought was excellent," reflected Murphy.
"But there's still plenty we can get better at and we're going to need to with the teams we're going to face over the rest of the season."
Category: General Sports
