Dan McFarland has hailed winger Ethan McIlroy for shining on a frustrating night as Ulster were narrowly - and cruelly - overshadowed by Toulouse in the Champions Cup.
The province were leading 46-43 on aggregate in the second leg of Saturday’s last-16 tie in Belfast when Tom O’Toole was red carded for a high tackle 15 minutes from time.
Toulouse took advantage, star No9 Antoine Dupont scrambling over for a late try that sealed the reigning champions a quarter-final date with Munster.
Read more: Ulster will rally around devastated Tom O'Toole after red card, says Iain Henderson
Afterwards McFarland rued going down to 14 men and the fact Ulster “gifted” the visitors two first half tries to Thomas Ramos and Romain Ntmack from inside their own half.
But he reserved praise for McIlroy who scored both of Ulster’s tries, the second a superb one handed catch and finish from a Billy Burns kick.
“We had our own little bit of stardust with Ethan,” said McFarland. “The cross field kick, the catch and score, that was unbelievable, like unbelievable.
“I thought he was absolutely magnificent and he was one of the standout players on the pitch. He really stood up and did a brilliant job.
“The game was there for us to win. We probably should have won by 13 points in (the first leg in) Toulouse and we were in this game, competing with them.
“Ultimately we did a couple of critical things wrong and if you want to win at this level, you can’t afford to make those mistakes. On the day we didn’t quite get it right.”
On O’Toole’s 65th minute red card, McFarland said: “Their try at the end probably came off the back of having that extra man and being so potent.
“But I also look at their two tries. We gifted them two tries in the space of five minutes. A poor piece of defence let them through on an inside shoulder and also an intercept pass.
“The red card and those two tries were the difference between the two teams.”
McFarland hopes the frustration of Saturday’s loss fuels his players in the final weeks of the United Rugby Championship campaign, with Munster rolling into the Kingspan this weekend.
Ulster lie second in the table, 10 points below leaders Leinster, and are closing in on a place in the knockout stages.
“Look, I’ll be p***ed off, we’ll all be p***ed off, we'll be a bit grumpy but we’ll review the game and we’ll get over it,” he said.
“We have one competition to focus on now and there’s nothing like Munster coming to town on Friday to refocus the mind.”
Read more: Ulster suffer agonising defeat to Toulouse in Champions Cup
Read more: Ulster will rally around devastated Tom O'Toole after red card, says Iain Henderson
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