THE IMPACT OF Ulster’s four confirmed Covid-19 cases that caused the cancellation of last week’s Rainbow Cup clash against Scarlets has bled into this week as well.
Preparing for Saturday’s final game of the season against Edinburgh, head coach Dan McFarland admits he’s working with a “threadbare” squad for the trip to Murrayfield for a game that will mean absolutely nothing in the final standings.
With the four players who tested positive guaranteed to miss the game as they continue to isolate, there are nine others who were deemed close contacts who may yet miss the game as well, either if they test positive themselves or through a lack of fitness.
While McFarland confirms all nine players have thus far returned negative cases – and they would be available for the trip to the Scottish capital if that continued – they have not been able to train in that period, which only ends later this week.
It means the Englishman is dealing with a much reduced panel from which to select – one which isn’t even big enough to field two different teams in training in the week as ideal preparation.
“We’re down to the bare bones in terms of training but, as long as we keep testing negative for the rest of the week, we’ll be good to go at the weekend,” insisted McFarland.
“The last week was really frustrating. We got so close to the end (of the season) having played all our games and then missed the Scarlets game. It is what it is. It’s disappointing we got hit there but we carry on.
“As long as we keep testing negative, we’ll have plenty of people to play the game at the weekend. All we can do now is plug away and keep doing what we can do.”
To say Ulster’s season is petering out rather unspectacularly would be something of an understatement, the province ending with a dead rubber after a campaign that promised so much throughout, even with the various ups and downs they went through.
They won 14 of their 16 games in the Guinness Pro14 but didn’t make the final and, even though they were knocked out of the Heineken Champions Cup in the group stages, that disappointment was tempered by the possibility of claiming silverware in the Challenge Cup, but they then lost in the semi-finals to Leicester Tigers.
The Rainbow Cup has been a failure, Ulster sitting bottom of the standings after losing three interpros and receiving nothing from their cancelled Scarlets tie, and McFarland himself admits it’s not a competition he was ever overly enamoured with.
But there is still plenty to play for on Saturday despite the points not making a difference to either side, particularly from an Ireland perspective.
Young players such as Nick Timoney, Mike Lowry and James Hume will be hoping to catch Andy Farrell’s eye one more time ahead of the summer Tests against the USA and Japan. At a provincial level, this will also be the last chance for some players to put in a convincing performance in front of McFarland before the off-season.
In that regard, the head coach isn’t treating this as a pointless endeavour before they jet off on their summer holidays, rather as a telling indication of where his squad is at before they reconvene to do it all again next season.
“I’m more interested in seeing how well the guys on the field go. What kind of performance can they put in? What kind of a statement can they make going into the off-season? How close are we to playing the brand of rugby that we want to play?” added McFarland.
“It was disappointing not playing against Scarlets because against Leinster, albeit we lost, we played some really good rugby. We were looking forward to backing that up but now we’ve had a little bit of a break, the team will change around a bit and guys will get the opportunity to put their hands up.
“There are a lot of guys looking to play this weekend that it means a lot to. It means a lot to everyone. These are professional rugby players and they want to show their wares. It could be impressing the selection team here, it could be impressing the selection team with Ireland or simply wanting to get on the pitch and play.
“Playing rugby is awesome. It’s 15 years since I played and there isn’t a feeling like it.”
