Rugby

PRO12: Les Kiss rings changes for visit of Edinburgh

Luke Marshall is set to make his first PRO12 appearance since Ulster’s win over Treviso at the start of October against Edinburgh tonight
Luke Marshall is set to make his first PRO12 appearance since Ulster’s win over Treviso at the start of October against Edinburgh tonight Luke Marshall is set to make his first PRO12 appearance since Ulster’s win over Treviso at the start of October against Edinburgh tonight

ULSTER captain Rory Best will sit out tonight’s PRO12 clash with Edinburgh at Kingspan Stadium having been rested under the IRFU player management programme as director of rugby Les Kiss makes seven changes to his line-up.

Rob Herring, who signed a new two-year deal with the province earlier in the week, comes in to replace the Ireland hooker and will wear the captain’s armband just as he did when Best was on World Cup duty.

Luke Marshall will play alongside Darren Cave in the midfield, Rory Scholes joins Andrew Trimble on the wing with forwards Ricky Lutton, Franco van der Merwe, Chris Henry and Roger Wilson also coming into the starting line-up.

Edinburgh and their hosts are locked together in 23 points after eight games so, with the Scots ahead in sixth place in the table on games won, tonight’s contest takes on added significance.

With a top-six finish almost certainly required to retain a place in next season’s European Champions Cup, Ulster need to make their home advantage count and leapfrog their opponents.

Fly-half Paddy Jackson admits Ulster haven’t had the best of starts to their campaign in either competition, with an opening 27-9 home defeat to Saracens in Europe, and he was in no mood to make excuses for last week’s 8-3 defeat by Leinster at the RDS.

“I don’t think there were any real positives to take from the game except, perhaps, that our discipline was good and we didn’t give away too many cheap penalties,” he 


said.

“But the overriding feeling was one of disappointment and that’s how I would sum up our start to the season so we have to turn things around, starting with the Edinburgh game.”

Head coach Neil Doak says it is too early to be pressing any panic buttons despite his side’s inauspicious start to the season which included a 17-10 defeat to Edinburgh at Murrayfield.

“It’s still early days and we’ve got three good bonus point wins so we have to try and make sure we get a few more wins to climb up the table,” he said.

“Playing Edinburgh will be a difficult task and they are a big, physical side who can hurt you if you allow them to get into decent positions.

“We know that they are a quality side; they have a decent squad and they bring a lot of physicality if you sit back and let them play because they have plenty of runners and ball carriers.

“There are no easy games and it’s not going to be an easy ride for anybody especially away from home and there’s not a lot of teams that are picking up wins and that’s why home form is key.

“Edinburgh are one above us and our goal at the start of the year was to get top-four minimum and ideally win the league.

“The best opportunity of doing that is to get a home semi and history has shown that winners will come from that.

“It’s early in the season but we’re under no illusions about how big a game Friday is for us to get back to winning ways, especially at home.”

Edinburgh coach Alan Solomons knows all about Ulster’s home form having experienced it first-hand when he coached the province.

“Ulster at the Kingspan in front of a home crowd will be a tough ask, without a doubt, and we have to make sure that we are at our best,” said the South African.

“Though we’ve beaten Ulster twice this season at home in the PRO12 and in our pre-season friendly we know we have to be absolutely at the top of our game on Friday.”

Meanwhile, Connacht skipper John Muldoon is set to make Guinness PRO12 history in Cardiff tonight.

The 33-year-old Galway man will become the first player to break the 200-appearance ceiling when he skippers top-of-the table Connacht against the Blues.