Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing towards what will be.

This was a match Ulster started well, but just like the previous week in La Rochelle despite the start they gradually fell away. At times Ulster look like a talented amateur whose glass jaw and lack of big punch has them quickly found out when they turn pro.

The Ulster lineout was a real pre-Halloween horror show that even a change at hooker did nothing to arrest. You could say had the lineout gone differently maybe Ulster would have been close enough to nick something -but ultimately the problem runs deeper.

The problem is that whilst some elements are improving, Ulster aren’t really making progress and they haven’t been for a few seasons. Sure, there are some genuinely talented players at Ulster, but there have been talented players over the past few seasons. And just as the scrum is clearly more competitive this season they are still a team that seem unable to dominate opponents up front.

Ulster’s Academy has produced Stockdale and Rea but is not producing in the number or depth of the likes of Leinster who understandably show no shame with their embarrassment of riches.

The quality and contribution of the NIQ players continues to be on the slide, with the exception of Charles Piutau, who will not be there next season.

Christian Leallifano’s departure is being counted down in weeks rather than months. The second half in La Rochelle gave a flavour of how things might taste in early 2018 when he’s gone.

This all points to a failure in “off field” strategy. When Shane Logan took over as CEO in 2010 he literally promised world dominance. Whether that was naivety on his part I don’t know. But surely he must understand, that because he so clearly defined expectations, he would ultimately be judged by a failure to get anywhere close to meeting them.

Logan said, “Whatever plan we put together has to deliver Ulster being top of the pile in Ireland, Europe and indeed the world” -seven years on and none out of three. The closest Ulster came to the first two was in 2012 with a largely inherited setup which was then dismantled with Brian McLaughlin being shown the door.

His David Humphrey’s sourced replacement Mark Anscombe was shown the door after two years despite being consistently competitive both domestically and in Europe. What followed was their era of Logan’s own man Les Kiss. Firstly, on an interim basis, because he was so good we should hang around for him, and then permanently from 2015. His lack of success by the end pf 2017 culminated in the clear out of everyone but Les.

Logan’s success has been on the commercial side and community development side of Ulster Rugby, but this larger fan base will not be maintained by a team that isn’t winning enough -and quite possibly this growth was something that could have been achieved by countless others.

The hard truth is that Ulster are no closer to winning anything this season than any of the last few and if anything, they feel further away.

There are always those who will point to this loss being to a Leinster team on a roll coming off the back of a great win in Glasgow. But Ulster were controlled and beaten by a Leinster side, not “the” Leinster side. Such is the strength in depth now in Dublin that winning in Belfast is achievable without a whole host of big names.

As for Ulster, a lot now rests on this weekend’s trip to South Africa where they will be hosted by winless South Kings. The unlikely scenario of failure to get a result would put Ulster in a proper spin. But if as expected they win, Ulster have a run of winnable fixtures including Benetton, Harlequins, Dragons and Connaught right up to New Year and could easily go on a roll to lift the mood around Ravenhill.

And of course, it’s still possible Ulster could navigate a way through their European Pool as a well-placed runner up.

Overall however, the lack of forward power and overall depth will mean another trophyless season for Ulster -and without a change of strategy or better still change in strategists next season will bring continuity in mediocrity.

If you are not going to divorce the status quo, you will give birth to mediocrity