FOR THE SECOND time in three weeks, the buzz word at Kingspan Stadium is ‘consistency’.
Only two weeks ago, Ulster couldn’t back up a big result the next week as their first win over Leinster in Dublin since 2013 was followed up by a defeat in Swansea to the Ospreys. So, coming into a week where they’ve just picked up a first ever win in Clermont, the challenge is not to repeat that disappointment.
“That’s been something we’ve been very aware of,” says assistant coach Dan Soper. “The very, very top teams in Europe and in their domestic leagues, they’re the teams who, when they get big results, can back them up the next week.
“If we want to be a team that sits at the top table, that’s what we need to do. You want to find that lovely balance of getting a win and still wanting to push on. We know we are not the finished article by any stretch and we have a lot we are trying to do in terms of improvement.”
Ulster had one of their best performances of the year at the Stade Marcel-Michelin, with Nick Timoney, John Cooney, James Hume and Mike Lowry to the fore, and they are now considered one of the front-runners to make the last-16 of the Heineken Champions Cup having picked up a priceless away win.
But, as Soper points out, it means little if they can’t get the business done at home against Northampton Saints this Friday, a team, ironically, who have stung them after big results in the past.
Back in 2012, Ulster won 25-6 at Franklin’s Gardens in the first of their December back-to-back games in the Heineken Cup and were expected to roll over the same opponents at Ravenhill a week later, only to be stunned 10-9. Even earlier this year their come-from-behind Challenge Cup quarter-final victory was followed by the immediate devastation of exiting at the semi-finals to Leicester Tigers.
After their defeat to Connacht prior to the international break, head coach Dan McFarland claimed his side did not perform as well when they were favourites. It will be intriguing, then, to see which Ulster side show up at Kingspan Stadium this week when they are heavily preferred to the Saints – the one that accounted for Leinster and Clermont or the one that submitted to the Ospreys.
The province have at least been proactive in taking steps to address that inconsistency, such as bringing in a lead performance psychologist to help the squad, Darren Devaney, something they hope will benefit them long-term.
“He’s been really useful. He’s not been here particularly long but he’s having a real influence on the squad just in the wee things that we do. Hopefully he will help with that consistency and it’s one that every coach in every sport out there is striving to find the answer,” praises Soper.
“What we’re trying to go after is standards, standards of how we prepare and encouraging the players to have a routine in how they go about preparing themselves so that they’re as well prepared for Clermont as they are for Saints at home and every week.
“Every time you go out you want to win and see a performance, and hopefully if you get the performance the result backs that up. We have to get a position where performance drives us and it continually makes us better.
“If we do that and we’re continually trying to get better then hopefully we will see that consistency that we desperately want. We’re also aware that we haven’t quite got that yet.”
They will have to take on Northampton without Ireland winger Robert Baloucoune, who left Clermont in a makeshift sling following a tip-tackle from Jacobus van Tonder, and went for a scan yesterday to determine the severity of the injury, something Andy Farrell will likely be keeping a close eye on, too.
