ULSTER HEAD COACH Richie Murphy has insisted that the province are in a good place to hit the ground running on Friday night when they host Edinburgh in the URC’s opening round.

Despite a lengthy injury list, added to by James Hume not being fit for action this weekend, and an Ireland contingent mostly unavailable for kick-off in the league, Murphy pointed out that his squad are primed and ready to begin on an upbeat note.

Ulster should at least have Juarno Augustus back in the fold for the first time since the heavy defeat to Montpellier in last May’s European Challenge Cup final while new signings Matthew Devine and Keynan Knox are also tracking well to play as the province begin their bid to ultimately make sure they do not miss out on the URC top eight for a third season running.

“Getting a good start is important,” the Ulster head coach admitted, “and we’re in a slightly different situation this year with player availability and an injury list that’s pretty long.

“But after a really good pre-season with the players that we had on the pitch, I think you can see in the way we’ve built through those two pre-season performances (beating Edinburgh and the Ospreys) that we’re in a good place getting started.

“Everything is geared up for Friday night. We’re excited, and we’re delighted to be at home.

“We would have liked to have had more players available this week, but it is what it is.”

And referencing the disappointing end to last season he added: “They (the squad) know how close they got to making top eight last year, how close they got in European competition (by making the final).

“They all want more. That final, although it was a disappointing result, has really driven us on in relation to we know we can compete at the very top end.

“I think we have a hungry squad who want to improve and who want to prove some people wrong as well.

“The biggest takeaway from pre-season,” he continued, “is that we’re a fitter team than we were last year. There’s a hunger within the team and leadership is growing in relation to the experience of the younger players that we’ve had playing over the last couple of seasons.

“And some of the new guys like Keynan (Knox), Eduardo (Bello), and Eli (Snyman) coming in brings an air of calm in relation to how we go about our business.”