Dan McFarland says his players put in some “fantastic performances” as Ulster qualified for the last 16 of the European Champions Cup in Belfast.
After three last-gasp defeats in a row, Ulster ran out 22-11 victors in a winner-takes-all showdown with Sale.
McFarland said he will take more from the performance than the result after Ulster’s second-half display.
“I know it sounds silly, but I’ll probably take more out of the way that we played,” he said.
“I will be able to use that in our review next week and moving into the Six Nations period to say, ‘look, this is beginning to look like what we need it to look like’.
“Fair play to the lads, fair play to the coaches. Our attack was really good and our defence was excellent.”
McFarland added he felt happiness rather than relief as Ulster ended their worst run of the season – which saw the Irish province win just one game in seven.
The last three of those defeats came in the final play of the game.
“[I’m] very happy. I thought we came out and wanted to put in a performance at home, in front of our fans in our house,” McFarland said.
“I thought the crowd was electric and the atmosphere was brilliant.
“A chunk of that was probably to do with the way that we played. I thought we were excellent with both sides of the ball.
“Not perfect, obviously, but Sale are a really good team.”
Ulster have everything to gain
Ulster’s head coach said the poor run of form had been “concerning” but the manner of Saturday’s win can get his side back on track.
“It’s been so frustrating. If a rugby match was 78 minutes long we would have won four games in a row,” McFarland added.
“We have been in a bit of a slump in terms of our own form, I don’t think we are miles away but when you have been playing the quality of teams that we have been playing – you end up losing a couple and it definitely plays on your mind.
“You rely on your basics. You keep fighting, you keep working hard and you keep playing for each other.
“When guys put their hands up like they did tonight you will find a performance at some point.
“It’s important to give us the excitement of playing a round of 16 game. I think it is probably more important that we will be able to look at the performance.”
Ulster look like they will face Irish rivals and unbeaten Pool A winners Leinster in the last 16 – barring a landslide victory for winless London Irish against Montpellier on Sunday – and McFarland says it is a game his side will relish.
“We’ll look forward to it,” he said.
“Purely on the fact we get to play the best team in Europe in a play-off game. We are always looking for opportunities and there’s nothing on paper that says we should win that game.
“We’ll take that. We’ll go in and, it’s not a question of nothing to lose, but we have everything to gain.
“We’ll put that on the backburner. We have a huge game against the Stormers, the reigning [United Rugby Championship] champions coming to Ravenhill next week so we will turn our attention to that.”
