Even in the immediate absence of the famed new manager bounce, the response from Ulster’s players to Richie Murphy’s arrival on a caretaker basis always made his permanent appointment feel a near certainty.

The former Ireland Under-20s coach was named head coach of the province on Monday, signing an two-year deal at Kingspan Stadium to replace Dan McFarland.

Having arrived fresh off the underage Six Nations at the end of March, Murphy’s record as interim boss reads played seven, won four, lost three.

Ulster exited the European Challenge Cup with a heavy defeat to Clermont under his watch but, now sixth in United Rugby Championship, have utilised a three-game win streak to improve two positions in the table since McFarland departed after five and half years in charge.

With his first pair of games taking the side to South Africa, and each of his opening four played away from home, Murphy spent his first month in post bereft of training time, lucky to get more than one full pitch session a week.

His most pressing task was to improve the mood of a group that scrum half John Cooney last month said were not even enjoying their victories in the winter.

Former lock Brown made more than 200 appearances for Gloucester as a player and has worked in various capacities within the club over the past 10 years since retiring on the field.

He accepted criticism that the loss was “embarrassing”, apologising to fans – particularly those who travelled to Franklin’s Gardens – and accepting that the club’s Premiership performances have not been good enough.

Gloucester have won 11 Premiership games out of 37 across the past two campaigns.

“Premiership is number one and I don’t think anyone can hide behind that – we’ve not performed there and we need to address that,” Brown said.

However, Brown dismissed criticism that Gloucester had damaged the integrity of the competition by rotating their squad in recent games and fielding such an inexperienced side against Northampton.

“Over the course of the season I think we’ve been very competitive,” he said, pointing to one-point and two-point losses to Exeter and Northampton respectively earlier in the season.

“We’ve prioritised what we need to prioritise and that’s important. We’ve got a raft of injuries and we can’t put out our senior team every week because they can’t manage the load.”

Brown did admit Gloucester’s strength in depth is an issue, although he fell short of saying the club was financially hamstrung.

“We’re trying to run the club sustainably and that does come with its challenges,” Brown added.

“The first 15 on paper are a competing team – the team underneath that, we need to address that and look at that over the course of the off-season and see if we can improve that.

“We just need to get more out of the team within the constraints we’ve got.”

Price has made clear she now hopes to fight in the Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium, with Shalom believing stadium fights are “definitely” on the cards for Price in the future.

“Yeah, definitely, even if it’s not next, you know, in a few years, that’s the dream,” Price added.

“For me to have the backing like that in my first world title fight on Saturday night, I think it just goes to show that the fans come out and supported me and my following is only going to get bigger.

“I want to sell out stadiums and I am sure I will get there.”

Price believes she can beat anyone at welterweight and while Shalom is happy to let her try and unify the ultra-competitive 147 lbs division, he says he is already potentially eyeing a showdown between Price and American legend Clarissa Shields.

Shields, nicknamed the GWOAT (the greatest woman of all time) is a double-Olympic champion and three-weight world champion as a professional, having never lost in the paid ranks.

“She’s got the ability to dominate at welterweight but don’t forget in the Olympics she boxed at middleweight and at middleweight you’ve got Savannah Marshall and Clarissa Shields,” Shalom added.

“I would feel confident about her fighting Clarissa Shields. With another time and building her up correctly, that could be a fight between the two best women’s boxers around.

“It would be the ultimate test for Lauren.”