Heineken Champions Cup: Sale Sharks v Ulster (Sunday, 1pm, live on BT Sport 2)
ULSTER will begin the Heineken Champions Cup on Sunday without the services of John Cooney and captain Iain Henderson.
Both players were forced off with concussion related injuries during last weeks 38-29 reverse at Leinster and will have to settle for a viewing post from the sidelines.
While Ulster will be poorer for their loss, the good news is that James Hume and Tom Stewart have been deemed fit to play.
Hume takes up position at centre alongside Stuart McCloskey while Stewart will have to be content with a spot amongst the replacements as head coach Dan McFarland opts for experience.
Rob Herring returns at hooker with Alan O’Connor captaining the side from second row, while there are also recalls for Duane Vermeulen, Jacob Stockdale and Nathan Doak.
The AJ Bell Stadium in Sale is not a venue that would be familiar to too many Ulster players and supporters, but one man who knows the surroundings is out-half Billy Burns.
Burns lined out at the Salford venue for his former employers Gloucester and while it has been four years since he last took to the sod at Sale, he guarantees that he and his Ulster teammates can expect a physical battle come Sunday lunchtime.
Sale currently sit second in the English Premiership and can boast a team sheet that includes England players Tom Curry, George Ford and Manu Tuilagi.
“They're a completely different team to when I played them five or six years ago,” said Burns.
“I played at the AJ Bell a couple of times; it was always a very physical game. Good up front and they've probably got even better in that area. They have a lot of South Africans and we know that they're typically good at the set-piece.
“When I played Sale, being up north, they like that Rugby League style which is really good shape, threats at the line, having to double tackle.
“It'll be a huge challenge but off the back of a disappointing weekend there's no better challenge to get your teeth into than the Champions Cup.”
After starting the week addressing the failures that lead to such a damaging loss to Leinster, Burns admitted that telling a few home truths has helped to digest that defeat.
“All you think of is what you could have done better, how much of an opportunity it was for us to get points down there, but you can't rest on it too much.
“Coming in (on Tuesday) from half past seven to 12 o'clock, it was all about finding answers, trying to find solutions.
“It's not all rosy and happy, you have to have the hard conversations but as soon as that's done, if you're dragging that around being miserable it'll seep into your performance this week.
“We're lucky that we get to close that book, take our learnings and go into a huge game this weekend in a competition that this club loves, that this group of players love, and we'll get our teeth into it.”
