ANDY FRIEND SAYS all of the pressure will be on Ulster in Friday night’s URC quarter-final clash with Connacht.
In what could be his final game in charge at the Sportsground, Friend, who is leaving after five years at the helm, is boosted by the availability of Irish internationals Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen, both of whom missed their final scheduled game away to Glasgow Warriors the weekend before last through illness.
There is further good news with another international, hooker Dave Heffernan, available again after recovering from an Achilles injury, as they try to nail down a semi-final spot for the first time since they won the competition in 2016.
“We have just come off the field from a good session there. It’s always a good sign when you have got a healthy squad. A lot of people putting up their hands. Selection is always tough at this time of year. Some good players will miss out again unfortunately,” said Friend, who has 41 players available for selection this week.
Connacht have been beaten twice this season by Ulster, losing 36-10 on the opening weekend in Belfast and then going down 22-20 at the Sportsground in December, but Friend says they have improved enormously since then.
“We are a very different team now, we have adjusted some things in our attack, in our defence, our scrum continues to be a weapon for us and our lineout attack and defence and our maul have continued to grow throughout the season,” said Friend.
“We are a very different team even to the one which played them in December and we are a very different side now to what we were then.”
Friend guided Connacht to their first win in Ravenhill in 58 years when they triumphed 22-15 a few months into his first season in charge and he says they will go back to Kingspan Stadium with a pep in their step this Friday after turning around their season since Christmas.
“Confidence is high, I think we have been building during the season and we have been playing good rugby at the moment,” added Friend.
“I think there is probably more pressure on them than on us. They are at home, they finished second on the ladder, we finished seventh, they have beaten us twice already this season, so there is probably a weight of expectation on them whereas we are going up there with nothing to lose and everything to gain out of it.”
