The devastating nature of Glasgow Warriors’ last-gasp defeat against Ulster left few crumbs of comfort for defensive coach Pete Murchie, but he was proud of their meritorious commitment and ferocity amid adversity.
Ultimately, Glasgow were punished for their inability to assert their dominance onto the scoreboard during the first-half as Dan Shanahan scored the winning try with the clock four minutes into the red, in the proverbial game of two halves.
The reigning URC champions produced a commanding opening 40 minutes but their two-point lead at the break didn’t reflect their superiority and they required a Herculean defensive effort to repel the hosts in the second half.
After Tom Jordan and Ritchie Gray were sin-binned, Glasgow were camped in their own 22 as they defended valiantly with 13 men. Ulster’s bombardment of the Glasgow line eventually told when Dave McCann scored but Warriors captain Kyle Steyn thought he’d won the game at the death before Shanahan’s cruel blow.
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Kyle Steyn laments Glasgow's lack of cutting edge in Ulster loss
Glasgow’s achievements last season have resulted in them becoming a major scalp for rivals but the Warriors’ success hasn’t led to complacency or a derelict of duties. The commitment to the cause was abundantly clear as Franco Smith’s men put their bodies on the line amid constant pressure in Ulster.
Glasgow average around 150 tackles per game but they registered 327 against Ulster, a record during Smith’s tenure, and that application delighted Murchie despite the agonising defeat.
“We put in a huge effort and made 327 tackles, which is certainly not a number that we've had since I've been defence coach,” Murchie confessed.
“I think Rory Darge was 39 this week. And Gregor Hiddleston played 20 minutes and made 27 tackles. So, a huge amount of effort went into it but ultimately, coming out on the wrong side of the result and obviously the timing of it, it was tough to take given the effort that had gone into it.
“There are always things you can look at alongside that. We need to look at how they got entries because, to be honest with you, it was only happening a couple of metres out.
"But the thing about the game, and that's the good thing about the game, is it doesn't matter whether you score a try from your own line or whether you score from six inches out, a try’s a try. It counts for the same amount of points.
“So we need to look at how we can apply more pressure. But at the same time, I've got a question just in general about the refereeing. Do they want us to defend the goal line? Because it seems like as soon as you get to that area of the pitch, there's only one side of the ball that's getting refereed and it's defence.
“So yeah, if they generally want a contest in the game, then it needs to get refereed that way. So yeah, there's frustration there obviously as well around some of those decisions.”
There’s been a significant shift to speed up rugby and make it a more appealing spectacle in recent years. Glasgow were penalised repeatedly by referee Adam Jones as Ulster mounted pressure in the second half, and Murchie believes his side should’ve been allowed more leeway to compete at the breakdown.
“I don't think it's changed,” Murchie added on the application of the rules.
“A lot of the law variations are always obviously about speeding up the game and looking at how you can score more tries and get more points. And I get that. It's important, it's about entertainment value.
“But it's a game of contests, isn't it? And that keeps getting referred to. That's why we've got scrums, that's why we have line-outs, that's what stops it from being rugby league. So we want to be able to contest.
“We pride ourselves on sticking in for as long as it takes. I think there were some examples of where we could have got stuff, but it's more a general point. We're digging in.
"You just want there to be a genuine contest and that comes down more to just the general refereeing in that area, around things that would get penalised if it's in a different area of the pitch, maybe isn't getting as closely scrutinised.
“Especially when you get five metres out from your own goal line. And invariably cards come out in that area of the pitch as well, as they did at the weekend.”
There was frustration from within the Glasgow camp they weren’t awarded a decision from Rory Darge’s turnover attempts in the build-up to Ulster’s winning try.
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Murchie continued: “I think there's a couple of times where Rory is on the ball for a considerable amount of time. Didn't get the call. There's a couple of things, but it's tough. It's tough and from a referee's perspective it's got to be clear.
“In that area of the game, we're in the red, clock's gone. It's one of those things where it has to be clear for them to give it. Essentially we'll win the game if the decision gets made. It's tough.”
Glasgow return to Scotstoun on Friday for their first competitive home game since their URC quarter-final win over Stormers in June when they face Benetton.
It was a bruising encounter in Belfast, but Glasgow have come through relatively unscathed and Murchie is looking ahead to another big challenge against a side full of Italian internationals.
“It’s great that we've got a game at home coming around on Friday,” Murchie admitted.
“You quickly turn your attention to that. We're ready to go to crack into Benetton, who are going to be a tough test.
It's always a massive battle against them. We get to know the Italian side really well, considering we play them twice in the season. They're in our shield.
"They've got a huge squad. They've invested a huge amount of money into that squad. I think they've got most of the Italian national team. It's going to be a big challenge.”
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