ULSTER RUGBY HEAD coach Neil Doak says his much-changed team that faced Glasgow Warriors on Saturday’s final day of the Pro12 regular season was driven by necessity as much as prioritising the upcoming play-off.
Having gone in to the game with a real chance of claiming a crucial home berth in the semi-finals, Doak made 12 changes to the team that faced Munster and the shadow squad ended up on the end of a 32 -10 defeat in Scotstoun.
Doak, however, refuted the suggestion that the changes marked an early concession to the side who will again provide the opposition in Friday’s semi-final (SkySports & TG4)
“The previous week we had the draw, we [felt we] needed two wins t get a home semi,” Doak said at the Pro12 awards in Dublin.
“We had 14 guys who couldn’t train on the Thursday — we had quite a number of guys who, even if we wanted to go with a full strength side, wouldn’t have been able to tog out on Saturday.
“We had to take a bit of a conscious thought process… when you look at it: 23 minutes gone and Munster have a bonus point win. We checked the Ospreys when they were 20-odd up. So it was difficult at the best of times.”
Even without a bonus point win for the Ospreys in Galway, the Welsh side were out of Ulster’s reach thanks to the number of games won. Ifs and buts are not a major concern for the province, but there is a fear among some supporters that some momentum may have been handed over to Gregor Townsend’s side.
“We were competitive for 60 minutes on Saturday, we had the intensity,” Doak points out with a nod to the fact that Ulster’s shadow team led the fixture until the 55th minute and trailed by just eight before the floodgates opened after a sin-binning with 16 minutes to go.
So although Doak insists the attitude of selected players will not shift, Saturday was a day for learning and reconnaissance before the real match comes down for decision on Friday night.
“I thought we dealt well with Glasgow’s ‘special plays’. It was just our multi-phase D which has to get a bit better.
“When you soak up a few tackles and Glasgow get that offloading game they can be very dangerous. They’ve got some great broken-field runners. That’s what we’ve got to tighten up on this weekend. It’s a big aspect of their game and we’ve got to make sure they don’t get that front foot and get that tempo in their game.”
With an eye on his team’s attack, he adds: “This week I didn’t think we were that great. Our first three or four opportunities in the Glasgow half we didn’t hold on to the ball long enough.
“Against Glasgow, if you don’t hold on to the ball long enough, they’ll be pretty dangerous. It’s something we need to work on this weekend, because we’ve gradually been getting better and better and better with ball in hand. So that’s something we need to look at this week.”
Though Iain Henderson, Paddy Jackson, Tommy Bowe and Rory Best played a role off the bench at Scotstoun, the addition of a fresh Darren Cave, Jared Payne, Dan Tuohy, Callum Black and Craig Gilroy to bolster the side could make Doak’s gamble look extremely shrewd by the time Saturday comes around.
