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European Challenge Cup: Ulster ‘know how dangerous Zebre can be’ – Tom O’Toole


Ulster lost at home to Edinburgh in their season opener, before playing out draws away to Glasgow and at home to Munster.

Murphy’s charges recovered from a 21-point half-time deficit against Munster to earn a 26-26 result last weekend but will hope their European opener can give them a platform to build on their run to the Challenge Cup final last season, which ended disappointingly with a heavy defeat by Montpellier in the decider.

“It’s been a bit disappointing the past couple of weeks ending up with draws, although it’s still points for us that we can take away for the URC,” added O’Toole.

“Fixing up our discipline is key, to not give teams much access straight from a set-piece.

“There are some penalties we gave away there that were avoidable, a couple of offsides, unfortunately Izzy [Cormac Izuchukwu] got yellow-carded at the weekend, and that came at a pretty costly time for us.

“If we can fix up a few of those mistakes I think we’ll be in a much better position.”

The 28-year-old will hope to be part of Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad for the resumption of the Nations Championship in November as he aims to add to the 24 caps he has won to date.

Argentina, Fiji and South Africa will be their opponents ahead of the finals weekend at the end of November.

Farrell’s team beat Australia and Japan in July, before suffering a loss against New Zealand.

“It’s very exciting, it’s always really nice to reconnect with that group. The opportunity to represent your country is an unbelievable honour.

“We’ve got a couple of weeks of Ulster games to go until that squad is announced so I just plan to do my best over the next couple of weeks and perform well.”

After Saturday’s encounter, Ulster will resume their Challenge Cup campaign when they host French side Bayonne at the Affidea Stadium on 12 December.



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