Leinster Rugby I XV 42 – 13 Ulster Rugby I XV: Brian McLaughlin Post Match Reaction

Post match reaction from Brian McLaughlin following Ulster’s 42-13 defeat by Leinster at the RDS.

“I thought our youngsters held their hand up exceptionally well on the night. The scoreline flattered Leinster a little bit.

We’ve got to take a look at these young fellas, the way they tackled, the way they defended but also the way they attacked – they’ve a little bit to learn there. There was a period in the first half when we had an opportunity and a period in the second half when we had an opportunity and on these big stages you’ve to take those chances. We didn’t tonight and unfortunately the game got away from us.

All credit to them, you can fault them in any way and they did their Province exceptionally proud tonight.

They made Leinster work hard for parts of the game – from my point of view this has been a good night for the young guys and a superb learning experience. They key thing is that they learn from this evening, they’ve got to because they were in the game for long periods of time but when you get opportunities at this level you’ve got to take them.

We put some good tackles in but there were some soft tries in there too. But they’re young. They’ll take a good look at it and they’ll learn from it.”

In just four days time (30th December), Ulster play Munster at a sold-out Ravenhill and McLaughlin is expected to field a much changed side having rested his senior players for this evening’s game

“Our senior players will have been sitting at home this evening, watching this match, and they’ll have seen the energy and urgency that some of those young fellas brought to the game – if we can get the same amount of energy from our top players on Friday night then we’ll be in business.”