Ewen McKenzie praised his team after Stade Francais opened their Heineken Cup campaign with a 26-10 win over Ulster.
Stade head coach praises players after historic win
Stade Francais coach Ewen McKenzie praised his team for a job well done after they opened their Heineken Cup campaign with a 26-10 win over Ulster at Ravenhill.
The French side had double reason to celebrate. Not only did they produce a highly-polished display of aggressive defence and fleet-footed attack to give them them an important opening Pool 4 result, but it was also their first win in Belfast after four previous reverses.
McKenzie was particularly pleased at the manner of the win and also expressed his relief that his side had put their Ravenhill hoodoo to bed.
Tries from Guillaume Bousses and Dimitri Szarzewski alongside two wonderfully struck long-range drop goals from Juan Martin Hernandez and Lionel Beauxis derailed Ulster's challenge.
McKenzie said: "We came here with history against us and it was always going to be a challenge to turn that around. I told the players before the game to go out and make history, and they did that.
"Ulster put pressure on us and they kept coming at us. They put pressure on our quality of defence and it really held up at key moments."
Referring to Stade's tactics on a rare dry day in Belfast, McKenzie said: "We could have played with more width today but we decided to play it more directly at them and though we did well I felt we left a couple of tries out there."
With man of the match Hernandez landing two drop goals, one from 40 metres, and Beauxis matching the Argentina star with an equally long-range effort, McKenzie explained that the drop goal is a useful weapon that the side often utilise away from home.
Late try
"It's a real psychological weapon to use and we have some really smart boys who read the situation and react. It's not a high-risk strategy and it works well when we're away from home," he said.
Ulster were left to lick their wounds - including Magners League games they have now lost five from six and sit bottom of the table - but coach Matt Williams was pleased with the battling qualities his side showed in managing to score a late try.
"I'm very proud of the guys, you can only ask players to give everything and they didn't turn it off for a second," he said.
"We kept fighting and fighting but they are a great side and took their opportunities really well.
"I thought we were still in it at half-time even though we were trailing 16-0, but they came out and took it away from us and their defence was first rate."
Try-scorer Paddy Wallace reckoned that Ryan Caldwell may well have had a try overlooked at a crucial moment for Ulster, but had no complaints over the final outcome.
"We went in at half-time knowing it was more than a 16-point wind that they had used. But credit to them in the second half, they played really well.
"We're disappointed not to win but we can take a lot of pride from our performance."
