Best: Ulster were overpowered

The Irishmen have made a formidable start to their GUINNESS PRO12 campaign with four wins from six, including a perfect record in front of their own fans at the Kingspan Stadium.

But the might of the reigning French and European champions proved too much for Neil Doak's men, who were second best, though a late try from Craig Gilroy reduced the arrears.

"Against a big pack like that we knew we had to move them around a bit. And to do that you've got to get quick ball," Best said.

"It's something we've worked hard on and we needed returns on that, but we couldn't get the ball we wanted.

"We got penalised a bit at scrum time, which we were a bit disappointed with. We felt we were better than the amount of penalties we conceded and we felt we should have had more of a positive outcome than that, as we had the upper hand at times, but we probably weren't as neat and tidy as we'd been before."

Two early penalties from Leigh Halfpenny put the visitors in command, but Paddy Jackson hit back from the tee on 20 minutes.

But Ulster's foothold in the game virtually evaporated in the final two minutes of the first half, with Halfpenny again slotting over after referee Wayne Barnes penalised Ulster in the scrum before Bryan Habana dotted down
in the corner.

Halfpenny added the extras and shortly after half-time Delon Armitage intercepted Nick Williams' pass deep inside his own half and raced clear to touch down under the posts.

Gilroy added the late consolation to leave Doak upbeat despite defeat.

The coach said: "It's a long season and we'll just have to keep digging in. We've got to pick ourselves up."

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