AFTER THE HIGHS of their Heineken Champions Cup campaign that saw them finish as the only side in Pool A to win all four of their games, finishing second only to Racing 92, Monday came the sobering reality for Ulster head coach Dan McFarland.
With eight chairs left empty by players linking up with Ireland’s Six Nations squad and a lengthy injury list that shows no signs of abating this week, putting together a team for Friday’s United Rugby Championship game against Scarlets may be less of a case of leaving players disappointed and more last man standing.
“We’re not far off having to be creative, particularly in the backs at the moment with guys doing so well (being called up by Ireland) and so many long-term injured, but you won’t see that this weekend, having people playing out of position,” reveals McFarland.
“In terms of the forwards we’re in a pretty good place, touch wood. The guys who’ve been on good form and playing well, there will be a big onus on them going into this block of games to continue their strong form.”
With their two inter-pros against Connacht and Leinster rescheduled during the Six Nations, April’s blockbuster two-legged last-16 European tie with defending champions Toulouse suddenly looks a lot further away now and plans have had to be redrawn rather quickly.
Where in Europe they have been flying, Ulster have only won one of their last four in the URC – arguably the hardest of the four games at the RDS Arena – and could do with addressing the disappointing form that has seen them drop to third in the table, seven points adrift of Edinburgh.
Any player management plan McFarland had in place for after this week’s Scarlets game has been scuppered by the rescheduling of the Connacht tie for next week and throwing the Leinster game into the mix in mid-March means they are active five of the next seven weeks rather than the originally scheduled three.
“It changes our focus in the sense that in the last couple of years during the Six Nations period you might only have two games, meaning you have four weeks that you’re not playing which is a mixture of downtime and training weeks,” says McFarland of the revised schedule.
“The gaps in between games are larger and as such the focus on what you’re doing turns away from match prep from week to week, to development. Given the nature of the fact that we have five games now, with two gap weeks, it’s much more match-focused.
“When the international players go away you’re left with a smaller group and the responsibility is on us as a group now to drive these next seven weeks. We may see players coming back but the onus is on this group to drive the performance, to drive training, drive our attitude to the games.
“With there being five games, the season is 18 games long so five games is a huge chunk of that so it becomes of pivotal importance.”
McFarland confirmed that it is “unlikely” either John Cooney or Stuart McCloskey will have recovered from respective injuries in time to face Scarlets, who are led by former Ulster assistant coach Dwayne Peel, while their Ireland contingent are unavailable having linked up with the squad this week.
One player who will be available is Wales hooker Brad Roberts, who has been released from their squad to feature at Kingspan Stadium on Friday, although he will not be featuring beyond the end of the season as he leaves to join the Dragons in order to further his international ambitions.
“Brad wanted to represent Wales and I totally understand that. If he wants to continue his ambitions he has to play in Wales,” said McFarland, who added that they are actively looking to bring in an Irish-qualified hooker for next season.
“For us, the emphasis is on guys who qualify for Ireland. We already have one Ireland hooker so we’re looking for guys coming through. Brad’s done a great job, starting with Rainey Old Boys and joining us when we had some injuries, and really grasping his opportunities, and throwing himself fully into the club.
“He’s an Ulster player for the rest of the season so I’m sure he’ll have a big part to play.”
