Doak thankful for bonus point at Welford Road

Ulster head coach Neil Doak has admitted that his team's 25-18 Champions Cup defeat to Leicester is a setback, but said that a bonus point away from home is good reward given his side started so slowly and trailed 19-3 at the interval.

"Well it was tough. To come away with a bonus point I suppose at least we've got points on the board away from home," said Doak.

"We always knew it was going to be a tough start, unfortunately the first half didn't go the way we had envisaged and gave Leicester a pretty decent lead.

"We done well in the second half, and took some chances and played with a little bit of tempo, and caused them a few issues.

"Unfortunately it wasn't enough in the end."

"You only get one or two chances against the big sides, and just maybe we didn't finish those off" - Neil Doak

Doak did credit his team for a strong opening five minutes, but admitted that Ulster failed to maintain that pressure in the opening 40 minutes. He also pinpointed Ulster's lack of a killer finish as crucial to the end result.

"It was a good start for us and we were patient with the ball in the right area, we probably lacked a little bit of possession in the rest of that first half," said Doak.

"We couldn't really capitalise in creating pressure on Leicester, and unfortunately they put pressure on us and maybe we didn't deal with that in the way we hoped.

"To give them 19 points, they're a quality side, and we knew it was going to be a tough ask in the second half.

"Credit to the boys, they played with a good tempo, and created some good opportunities.

"You only get one or two chances against the big sides, and just maybe we didn't finish those off."

Leicester bossed the breakdown in the first half at Welford Road, and Doak was keenly aware that this was reflected by the English side gaining a stranglehold on possession, saying: "We knew we had to get possession, but Leicester were always going to put us under a little bit of pressure.

"They kicked quite a lot of the ball, but I think when you look at the first half, it was just possession based. We just didn't have the ball."

But a bonus point on the road is nothing to be sniffed at, and Doak maintained that this silver lining is far from a disastrous start to their European campaign.

"Away from home you've got to pick up ideally a win. You've got to make sure you've got something on the board," said Doak.

"I think the same as Leicester came to Kingspan Stadium last year, they got a bonus point, and I think both teams will take qualifying out of this group at the moment.

"We've got to take that as consolation and move on to Toulon now."

As for that clash with Toulon in Belfast next Saturday in round two, Doak admitted his team have plenty of work-ons heading into that clash with the reigning European champions, saying: "We've got to have a look at tonight's game and have a look at things that we could have done better and correct them for next week, because with the quality that they have, if we don't, it's going to be a tough night for us."

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