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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Sport
Gareth Fullerton

Ulster Rugby post-mortem starts as fans slam 'mediocre' season

Ulster Rugby crashed out of the United Rugby Championship on Friday night.

A 15-10 defeat to Connacht was a massive body blow for Dan McFarland and his players who were favourites to progress to the semi-finals of the competition.

Instead, it is their interpro rivals who will now take on either the Stormers or Bulls in the last-four next week.

Read more: Ulster crash out of URC with home defeat to Connacht

Connacht more than deserved their win in Belfast, and probably by a healthier scoreline at Ravenhill.

But five penalties from Jack Carty were enough to book their place in the semis, and leave Ulster facing an unforgiving post-mortem despite finishing second in the URC regular season and blooding some young talent.

Fans were quick to voice their disappointment in the immediate aftermath of Friday's defeat.

Les said on Twitter: "Another season of mediocre rugby. Something needs to change."

Another fan added: "Surely a few P45s needed after that."

Friday's performance was an all-too familiar sight for Michael who said: "Same old same old. We got exactly what we deserved."

Niall simply rated the display "shocking" while Chris said a "clearout" was needed at Ravenhill.

Connacht capitalised at the breakdown during Friday's game, a problem for Ulster which Finn highlighted: "The lack of effort at the breakdown was actually embarrassing, u18’s should be better than that at linking with players and not having one off runners. Refereeing was a disgrace too, how did Connacht seem to get every 50/50 call on the planet."

Dan added: "Pathetic. Back room clear out please."

Luke believes McFarland's position as head coach is untenable. He said: "McFarland out. Rewarding failure if he’s kept on."

Meanwhile, Jonny offered a more diplomatic approach, tweeting: "Connacht deserved it - good luck in the semis. Disappointing performance at this stage, for whatever reason. Referee wasn’t great but we were 2nd best for most of the match. Hopefully back much stronger next year."

Another fan took a similar stance by saying: "Really poor performance, but have to look at the whole picture. 2nd place finish before the knockouts began and still plenty of young guys in the squad. No need for any knee-jerk reactions. We go again."

Ricardo wasn't as forgiving, saying: "That is an absolute disgrace."

And Graeme added: "Absolute Disgrace. Dan has to go.."

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