AS FAR AS their preparations for the new season go, Ulster’s have been less than ideal.
Going into their United Rugby Championship campaign with only one pre-season game under their belt, admittedly through circumstances out of their control, is not what Dan McFarland would have wanted from a competitive standpoint.
Ulster were already in Glasgow on Friday when news of their friendly against the Warriors being called off came through. With no other option, they stayed in the Scottish city overnight and flew back on Saturday without so much as a ball kicked in anger, which brings with it several problems.
There are players who will take to the field against Connacht on Saturday at Kingspan Stadium for their first game since May. Players who were meant to be challenging for starting positions didn’t get an adequate amount of time to put their hands up for selection. Fitness could prove to be an issue.
They’ll not use it as an excuse – McFarland has been consistent in that regard – but to say that they are in the ideal place to start this season wouldn’t exactly be accurate.
“It’s a real shame we didn’t get to play against Glasgow on Friday night but the circumstances are what they are and it’s right and proper,” conceded the head coach.
“But if you take in isolation of wanting to prepare for a first round fixture then it’s difficult for putting things in place you want to implement.
“But also for guys who wanted to put their hand up who might not have had as much opportunity, well, they haven’t, because of the fact that the game didn’t go ahead. That will definitely have had a bearing on selection as we go into the latter end of this week.”
Some players will come back in this week despite having not played significant minutes, with Ireland winger Robert Baloucoune likely to feature, but some key players have only played a half of rugby in that Chiefs game leading into Connacht this week.
That is the balancing act that McFarland has to walk when he sits down to select his team to face their inter-provincial rivals at the weekend, a team that no longer has any fear factor when it comes to playing Ulster given recent meetings between the two sides.
“We have the attitude that it’s a great opportunity for us and we almost look at it and say ‘it’s probably a really good test for the guys and the things we’ve been trying to do in pre-season’,” continues McFarland.
“They offer things around their linespeed, their non-stop relentless defence, relentless attack, and they are a good gainline team. Those are areas which are going to test what we’ve been working on over our pre-season.
“The inter-pro side of it? It’s an interesting one having an inter-pro first up but it’s also very exciting for the players. They are all looking forward to playing full stop, but the inter-pro adds something a little bit extra.
“From my point of view, it’s always a big one for me. We’re fully aware of (their record against us) and that’s a credit to the way they play against us. On a couple of those occasions, we haven’t played as well as we could have done but we’ve also had some big wins against them.
“We’ve been pretty well matched in our matches, and I expect it will be the same on Saturday.”
The intention, obviously, is for this to be the first win in another season where Ulster take a step forward in their bid to finally end their silverware drought and give the Ravenhill faithful something to cheer about, and the feeling is that this squad is primed to challenge after last season’s heartbreak.
Their crushing European exit at home to Toulouse was tough enough to take, but when coupled with Warrick Gelant’s 85th-minute try and Manie Libbok’s nerveless conversion to knock them out of the URC in the semi-finals, denying them the chance to host the final back in Belfast, it was a gut-wrenching end to a promising season.
That will fuel them this time around, and with the likes of Tom O’Toole, Kieran Treadwell, Nick Timoney, James Hume and Mike Lowry capable of taking another step forward in their development, and Will Addison and Jacob Stockdale back in the fold too, there is a feeling this side are better than last year’s.
But McFarland is cautious in his appraisal of his side’s chances, in particular pointing out that the South African sides will be even better this season now they have settled into the URC after making the move to the northern hemisphere last year.
“I would expect the South Africans to be even stronger this year,” he says.
“We don’t know what players they’ll have available during the first part of the season because of the Rugby Championship but there is no doubt that they got better even without their international players (last season) so I expect them to be stronger, more used to the league.
“Three of those teams were right at the top end of the competition. That’s only going to add to it. You’re not looking at teams at the top end who are getting weaker. Logic says it will only get more competitive.”
