McMillan 'expected much better' during Ulster loss

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan felt his side were "poor" in their United Rugby Championship loss against Ulster on Friday night but said his side will "bounce back" from a poor run.

After making a strong start to the campaign, Munster have struggled over recent weeks and have now lost four of their past six including back-to-back Irish derbies against Leinster and Ulster.

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Against the latter at Affidea Stadium, Richie Murphy's side had only a narrow 6-3 lead at half-time before tries from Tom Stewart, Jake Flannery and Bryn Ward after the restart secured a comfortable 28-3 win for the hosts.

The result put an end to Munster's three-game winning run against Ulster and saw the northern province jump above their Irish rivals in the table.

"We trained well during the week and expected a much better performance across the board," McMillan told BBC Sport NI.

"We didn't get it, and we weren't allowed to get it through a quality, physical Ulster side, so full credit to them.

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"They [Ulster] won the scraps on the ground and were able to build a little bit of momentum off that, the breakdown was poor, we lost races and we carried high. We had a couple of good moments but, overall, were poor again."

The defeat dropped Munster to sixth in the URC table before they turn their attention to the Champions Cup and Sunday's game against Top 14 side Toulon (13:00 GMT).

McMillan added he needs to "find out what will bring a turn of form" before their trip to the Stade Mayol.

"It is just our execution, which is becoming a recurring theme so, first and foremost, the coaches will look at ourselves before we look at the players," said the head coach in his first season at Thomond Park.

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"We need to reflect again and start thinking about what will bring a turn of form. We are hanging in there, but we haven't been that compelling with anything that we have done.

"We have a good group and we will bounce back, but you would like to have a bit more consistency and not have to go through performances like that to get a response."