Youthful Ulster 'would love to be part of history'

On the walls of one of the hospitality lounges at the Affidea Stadium there are pictures of Ulster's storied history.

The two that stand out contain teams celebrating silverware.

The European Cup win in 1999 remains the most famous day for the Irish province.

The other was the Celtic League triumph in 2006, but there has not been an addition to the honours board at Ravenhill for 20 years now.

Ulster have an opportunity to change that as they face Montpellier in the Challenge Cup final in Bilbao on Friday.

Richie Murphy's side head into the game off the back of a disappointing end to their United Rugby Championship campaign, as they finished just outside the play-off places in ninth.

But the slate was wiped clean after a review on Monday and, for head coach Richie Murphy, the chance to win a trophy and join the heroes of years gone by on the walls of the Nine Counties lounge is something "we want to embrace".

"We want to try and achieve what they've achieved," he told BBC Sport NI.

"You know, the guys don't shy away from the task that's in hand, but also the dream of coming back here with a trophy in the early hours of Saturday morning. You know, that's, you know, You can't just dream. You've got to have a plan.

"You've got to make sure you work really hard in order to prepare to be at your best. And that's what we're going at.

"The guys are looking around and seeing the history on the walls, and they'd love to be a part of that history."

With the dust having time to settle on Ulster's URC campaign, Murphy admitted it was "massively disappointing" not to reach the play-offs.

But while there was frustration about the final standings, he was keen to emphasise the positives from Ulster's campaign.

"We've achieved 14 more points than we did last year and 52 points has never not got to the top eight.

"So we've been really unlucky in relation to that.

"I think we have to look at the good things that have happened within that league campaign, the young players that have come through and done really well, some of the quality rugby that we've played.

"But ultimately we've missed out and one of our main goals this year was to make sure we were in the top eight, and we failed in that regard."

Murphy does feel that battling on two fronts ultimately impacted Ulster with the strength and depth tested to its maximum, as Ulster played their European fixtures on off weekends in the URC, when other domestic rivals were able to rest players.

"I'm not going to make any excuses. We really love the idea of being competing on two fronts.

"We'll have learnt a lot from that in relation to, our squad depth and the experience that younger guys have got over these last number of weeks.

"But ultimately, that's played a part in costing us as well as, things that were outside of our control. some of the decisions that went against us in the back end of things has been difficult to take at times, but ultimately, we got 52 points and we needed 54 to get in."

Montpellier will be stern opposition for Ulster. They sit second in France's Top 14 and have won the Challenge Cup twice before, in 2016 and 2021.

They are stacked with world-class home-grown players, who are infused with English, Scottish and Welsh talents such as Billy Vunipola, Ali Price and Adam Beard.

Murphy concedes that they are "a very, very good team".

"Montpellier are not a typical French team, there is a little bit of English influence in there as well with the likes of Billy Vunipola," he said.

"But their squad depth, that is far superior to ours in relation to three teams that are very close to the same level."

Murphy says it will be a "really tough game" but is confident his side have what it takes to deal with Montpellier's power and flowing attack.

"They have massive pack of forwards and plenty of backs who move really quick, and very, very good sort of very good compliments in relation to when you're trying to make a rugby team.

"It's going to be a massive task but it's one that we're well up for.

"Knowing that our season finishes after this week will probably help us in that regard, and the really good rugby that we've played throughout the year probably needs to be finished off."