Luke Marshall believes high-flying Ulster need to start showing a more ruthless streak heading into the business end of the season.
The province, who cruised to a 35-3 win over Connacht last weekend, currently top their Champions Cup pool and lie second in Conference A of the Pro14.
It has been a positive campaign to date but Marshall, one of the senior stars at the Kingspan Stadium, believes there’s more to come from Dan McFarland’s men
Ahead of tonight’s Interpro shootout with Munster, the long serving centre said: “We’re not quite at the level we want to be, although we’re improving week in week out.
“We’re definitely creating a lot and last week we scored five tries against Connacht.
“But no disrespect.. if we had been a bit more accurate with ball in hand between 50 and 70 minutes, we could have had six or seven.
“We have set ourselves high standards and we believe we can get there, but at the minute we’re not quite hitting them.”
Marshall has added reason to relish every high profile outing with an Ulster side making forward strides under McFarland.
Lest we forget, he made a try-scoring return from a 10 month injury lay-off in last season’s European quarter-final defeat to Leinster in Dublin.
A torn ACL sustained in the final game of the 2017/18 season saw him sidelined for 10 months and fearing for his career.
He said: “Obviously I want to play as much as possible and that's probably one of the benefits of a serious injury. You've effectively got a year out to get your body right.
“Rugby is pretty fickle, so you enjoy it while you have it and I am enjoying my rugby now more than ever.
“Not that I am old, but as you get a bit closer towards the end of your career, you always think it could end at any stage, so you’ve got to enjoy it while you are there.”
On tonight’s test against a Munster side who lie top of Conference B despite losing to Leinster last weekend, Marshall said: “The magnitude of the game means it will be like another European game.
“They’ll be hurting after losing to Leinster so they’ll have a few front line players back and it will be a big test. But we’re improving week by week and it’s a good challenge for us.”
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