'Top quality' Bell settling in at Ulster - Murphy

Head coach Richie Murphy feels the province will soon "see the blessing" of Angus Bell's arrival at Ulster

The Wallaby prop made his Ulster debut off the bench in Friday night's 61-7 win over Racing 92 in the Challenge Cup and will spend the rest of the season in Belfast.

The loose-head's first outing for his new side came after he started all four of Australia's Test matches in November and following just one week of training with his new team-mates.

"It's been very quick," said Murphy of Bell's transition.

"Because of our Friday night game, we literally only trained on Tuesday. A walkthrough on Monday, he trained Tuesday, there was a captain's run [on Thursday], then we played. For him to come in and fit in really quickly was good.

"It was always sort of a case where we wanted to get him that 25, 30 minutes so that he understood what it's like to play for us here. Over the next couple of weeks and months, we'll probably see the blessing."

Murphy added that the 25-year-old is already fitting in well with the playing group at Affidea Stadium.

"It's great to have him here. He's a top quality player," he added.

"[He has a ] bubbly personality, works hard and fits in well with our group so we're really looking forward to seeing him sort of grow into his Ulster jersey over the next number of weeks."

Bell's debut for Ulster came in a second half where his new side outscored their opponents 40-0.

Racing 92 heavily altered their line-up for the trip to Belfast and, despite trailing just 14-7 at half-time, were quickly overmatched after the turn.

Murphy opted to field Ulster's strongest available side for the game but acknowledged "there has to be rotation" through this key period of his side's season where they face 10 games in 10 weeks including four European games and three interprovincial derbies in the United Rugby Championship.

"You just can't pick the same team every week, so we're trying to balance that out and make sure that we're strong enough every week, that we're putting out a team that we think we can win a game with."