In Bilbao on Friday night, Ulster rugby will chase something the province has not held in twenty years: a trophy. The Challenge Cup final against French favorites Montpellier offers more than silverware—a win would deliver Ulster's first piece of European hardware since 2006 and secure a coveted spot in next season's Champions Cup.
It is an opportunity shadowed by absence. Ulster will field their European final without suspended captain Iain Henderson and injured trio Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, and Rob Herring. Yet head coach Richie Murphy has spent the week before the match in Bilbao, not lamenting what the team lacks, but channeling hard-won experience from some of rugby's biggest stages. Murphy coached Leinster through three Champions Cup victories and guided Ireland's Under-20 side to a Six Nations Grand Slam. He knows how finals feel, and how they break.
"Everything doesn't go right in a final, and it's how you react," Murphy told his players. The message is less about talent than temperament—about fighting when the plan crumbles, about sticking together when the scoreboard turns cold. Some finals yield to beautiful rugby. Others demand something rawer. "On other days you need to fight with everything you've got," Murphy said. "That's a key part of this game."
For many Ulster players, this will be the biggest match of their lives. Robert Baloucoune, the Ireland wing, returns from injury to make his first start since the Six Nations, a sign of the squad's thinning depth. The weight of a 20-year drought hangs tangibly over the province. Yet Murphy has resisted the temptation to overhaul preparation or psychology. Instead, he has worked to keep routines steady. Comfort breeds confidence. Repetition steadies nerves.
"We keep talking all the time about playing the game that we want to play. We're not going to change this week," Murphy said. "It's a big week, and the comfort in your daily preparation and your routine, that you have done all season, when it comes to a final is really important that you try and keep that the same."
This approach reflects a coach who understands the difference between preparation and performance. His job is not to reinvent Ulster on the eve of their biggest game. It is to let them feel ready, to trust the work that came before, to get out of the way. "It's a case of not getting in the way and to let people do what they are doing, but you keep them on task, which is to get them ready to play."
Montpellier carry the weight of favorites—they have won the Challenge Cup twice before and arrive in Bilbao with their own European pedigree. But favorites can falter. Ulster, missing their captain and three key players, will arrive with hunger the reigning order cannot replicate. Murphy's message to his squad is both simple and profound: play your game, but be ready to scrap for every meter when the script goes sideways. In a final, sometimes fighting is the only script that matters.