‘We’re going to have to up our game to have a chance’: Ulster hoping to halt Connacht danger at source

“THEY’VE GOT ONE or two threats, don’t they,” said Ulster defence coach Jared Payne in a wry Kiwi tone with a raised eyebrow when asked to size up Connacht.

The Westerners go to Belfast on Saturday for a Pro14 quarter-final looking to repeat the history they made earlier this season by bridging a 58-year gap between victories at Ravenhill.

However, having shown their teeth and a taste for knockout rugby against Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final, Ulster must feel primed for another battle after resting the majority of their front-liners for Saturday’s dead rubber against the same opposition.

Head coach Dan McFarland will hope to see Rory Best and Jacob Stockdale shake off respective ankle and hamstring knocks, while Sean Reidy must undergo return to play protocols after failing the HIA he took following a head-butt from Fergus McFadden.

And while their first-choice prop Marty Moore will remain sidelined, it is in the pack where Ulster will set their stall against Connacht in the hope of knocking that exhilarating back-line off its rhythm.

“They’re a good set-piece team. We’ll look to take that away from them,” says lock Alan O’Connor. Hopefully, that will hinder their performance around the park.

Tom O’Toole celebrates the win over Leinster. Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO

“They’ve got a pretty similar forward pack for the past few years. They’re good at moving the ball, good maul and scrum.”

Payne, naturally, is already aware of the back-line threats. With analysis work already begun, he took a leaf out of his compatriot Joe Schmidt’s book, naming almost the full back-line by name rather than describe the danger.

“They’ve got one or two threats, don’t they? Bundee (Aki) and Tom (Farrell) in the middle, Jack Carty at 10 he’s in a pretty rich vein of form. And then (Matt) Healy and Tiernan (O’Halloran) and (Cian) Kelleher in the back-three, that’s pretty dangerous.

There will be no shortage of motivating factors to ramp up performance. A knockout game, the lure of silverware too long absent from Ravenhill, an inter-pro and also the chance to extend Rory Best’s Ulster era beyond 220 caps.

“Besty talks about it all the time. Every day, he doesn’t stop,” Payne jokes of the ‘do-it-for-Rory’ theory. But it does carry some weight.

Payne and Rory Best chat in the wake of the narrow Champions Cup loss to Leinster. Source: Inpho/Billy Stickland

“It’s massive, what he’s done and Cavey as well. It’s up to the players whether they mention it or not, I’m sure it will be. To send them off on a high would be something special.

“He’ll do what he normally does, front-up every week and put his Best foot forward on the pitch.”

“A couple of players leaving, we want to send them off. We’ve had a really good year so far, but we’re hungry for more and we’re looking forward to next week.

“Like Jared said, we want to win every game and now it’s come to crunch time and actually playing play-off rugby here at the Kingspan, so really looking forward to it.”