Brian McLaughlin heaped praise on his Ulster side after watching their 26-12 victory over Bath in their opening Heineken Cup clash.
Ulster coach thrilled with performance as Premiership come unstuck
Brian McLaughlin heaped praise on his Ulster side after watching their 26-12 victory over Bath in their opening Heineken Cup clash.
The Irish side ensured of a winning start to their Pool Four campaign with a tough win over the Guinness Premiership side, leaving their coach thrilled.
"I'm really happy with the way things went and how we worked so hard for each other," McLaughlin said. "All credit to the guys as they played the game in the right areas of the pitch and came away with the points.
McLaughlin also emphasised the performances of out half Ian Humphreys, who kicked 16 points, and centre and skipper Paddy Wallace for the way they controlled the game at crucial times.
"You have to give Ian and Paddy praise for their match management. I was very, very pleased with our match management which was superb.
Building
"I think this squad of players are hopefully building towards something, but we still have a long way to go.
"That performance now has to be carried on and stepped up next week at Murrayfield (against Edinburgh). We've got to go there in a positive frame of mind."
Bath coach Steve Meehan refused to be drawn on flanker Andy Beattie's red card, which came in the 75th minute for use of the boot and undermined any prospect of coming away from Ravenhill with a losing bonus point.
"It's hard to complain about it as I haven't seen it yet but it's really out of character for Andy and if there was an action it came probably more out of frustration," he said.
Meehan felt Bath's second half effort was their undoing as Ulster took control and squeezed the life out of his side, forcing them on the back foot.
"I felt our first half performance was very good and the guys were confident in the changing room, but unfortunately for us we made one or two errors which put us on the back foot," he added.
"As a result, Ulster fed off our errors and played well. We just had to deal with too much pressure and they really played well with a solid set piece and great percentage play, it was a typical Ravenhill performance from them.
"For us, it's one match out of six and it's really too early to say what impact it will have."
