By Richard O'Reilly
Ulster 15-26 Wasps
Ulster suffered a 26-15 loss to Wasps in a pre-season friendly at Kingspan Stadium last night.
The English side held half time lead after tries from Craig Hampston and Simon McIntyre sandwiched a Pete Browne score.
In the second half Callum Patterson gave the Ulstermen a 15-14 lead.
However Josh Bassett and Danny Cipriani touched down to give wasps the win.
Cipriani also had two penalties in the game to finish on 11 points for the match.
Callum Patterson try! @UlsterRugby 15-14 @WaspsRugby pic.twitter.com/k9DttmwHqd
— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) August 17, 2017
Considering it was only a friendly, Ulster Director of Rugby Les Kiss was philosophical about the result.
"There was a couple of good positives" said Kiss "It was a friendly, you can get lost down a rabbit hole on a result in a friendly"
"You still don't like to lose at home" added Kiss " But there are some things that we worked on that we are good for us as well".
FT at Kingspan. @UlsterRugby 15-26 @WaspsRugby pic.twitter.com/Clx1H7wxz8
— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) August 17, 2017
Next up for Ulster is an away trip to Northampton Saints for another Friendly before their season opener at home to the Cheetahs.
Ahead of that, Ulster forward Chris Henry echoed Kiss's sentiments, refusing to dwell too much on the friendly defeat.
"It's always going to hurt [to lose] when we're at home" said Henry "I think the majority of us are very positive, I think we know we're going to get better."
Another positive was the return to action fof Tommy Bowe. The Monagahn came on at centre ,after being out since March following an injury in the Six Nations.