Richie Murphy says Ulster will rebuild from within and ruled out the possibility of a marquee signing for next season.
The former Ireland Under-20s boss was confirmed as the new permanent head coach of the province on Monday after taking the role on an interim basis in March.
South Africa prop Steven Kitshoff, who cut short a three-year deal to return to the Stormers, was the latest of a number of big international names, including compatriots Duane Vermeulen and Marcell Coetzee, to join the province in recent seasons.
Ulster today confirmed their list of departing players that includes Luke Marshall, Billy Burns, Greg Jones, Will Addison, Angus Curtis, Dave Ewers, James French, Shea O'Brien and Kitshoff.
And with the club under budget constraints, and currently without a stadium sponsor for next year, Murphy is preparing to work with what he has.
"The challenge ahead is how we build this team, which will be quite young, to make sure we become competitive," said the 54-year-old, whose side sit sixth in the BKT URC table ahead of Saturday evening's meeting with Leinster in Belfast (7.35pm).
"We're in a situation where most of the signings have been done and the budget is where it's at.
"There are probably one or two adjustments to that in the next couple of weeks so we're working away on that in the background but a lot of it was done before I came in.
"We're not looking at a marquee signing but exciting young players. We're not like a Man City of the rugby world, we can't go out and take whoever we need, so that means we need to develop from within.
"Our link with the academy needs to be really strong and our feedback with players needs to be positive and direct.
"We need to make sure the young players understand what it means to play for Ulster and at URC level."
After leading Ireland to a U20 World Championship final last year, U20s Grand Slams in 2022 and 2023, as well as finishing the 2024 campaign unbeaten, the Wicklow man (above) already has an in-depth knowledge of many of Ulster’s younger crop.
There were seven Ulster players in the Ireland U20s Six Nations squad this year, including Henry Walker, Jacob Boyd, Joe Hopes, Bryn Ward and Luke Murphy, while James McNabney and Reuben Crothers, captain of the 2022 squad, bring experience from earlier winning campaigns
Murphy said: "I'm in a good position in that I've come in and I've worked with a lot of them through the U20 system over the last three years and some of them through the Irish senior team further back which gives them confidence that they know me and as a coach I like people to feel comfortable.
"If standards aren't being met we'll deal with that, and the guys have enjoyed that approach so far and we're seeing responses from conversations we've had."
Ulster will be without Iain Henderson (toe), James Hume (knee), Marshall (concussion) and Rob Baloucoune (hamstring) for the round 17 clash against the European Cup finalists.
"Playing Leinster is always difficult no matter when you play them, but I've been in the Leinster camp coming up to Ulster a number of times - they don't find it an easy place to come either," added Murphy, whose side have won their last three league games.
"If the crowd can be as good as they've been in the first few games then I think they'll have a big part to play.
"Us, as Ulster, we need to turn up from minute one and put them under pressure.
"They've got class players no matter who turns up, so it'll be a big test coming up that will test certain elements of our game we're not happy with at the moment... behind closed doors we're working hard to fix that.
"We're at home, we're in Belfast, we're playing against a team that are extremely good but aren't going to pick their full team and have their eye on something else."
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