Ulster boss proud despite defeat
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:31
Despite seeing his White Knights beaten 26-10 by Stade Francais on Saturday afternoon coach Matt Williams says he was “very proud” of his teams performance.
While many Ulster fans may be concerned with the coaches good spirits in defeat the Australian boss said it the commitment and determination from his team which he had been impressed by.
"I was very proud of the guys," said the Australian.
"I told them that straight after the game. When you're coaching you can only ask your players to give everything and if you walked into that changing room at full-time there was blood on most jerseys, dislocated fingers, concussions, collision injuries and you saw them -- they were still going in the last minute. They didn't turn it off for one second."
Williams did admit he had been disappointed that, when his team had been on the front foot, they had not been able to make the most of them.
Particularly towards the end of the first half, when they had an extended spell in the opposition 22, the Irish side struggled to capatilize.
"You can't do that against a great team like Stade,
"You have got to take your opportunities when they come up. And that's what they did to us. When they got opportunities they took them."
Despite their bizarre attire the French side once again proved they are a force to be reckoned with in Europe and Williams was full of praise for the French giants, particularly star flyhalf Juan-Martin Hernandez.
"We have to say we played a magnificent side," continued Williams. "There was some incredible skill out there, like the drop-goals were just something else. You just have to take your hat off and say that was great individual skill."
