Guinness Pro 12: Ulster v Zebre (tonight, 7.35pm, live on BBC2)
ULSTER director of rugby Les Kiss will have been glad to have seen the back of February after the month ended with defeats to Scarlets and Cardiff.
Those losses mean Ulster go into tonight’s game against strugglers Zebre in fourth place in the PRO12 with Edinburgh and Munster breathing down their necks.
Kiss admits his side need to “get back on the front foot” after the double defeat and he has rung the changes for the Kingspan Stadium clash.
There are four changes to the team that started against Cardiff last weekend with Rob Herring returning to the side as captain.
Herring is joined in the front row by Kyle McCall, at loosehead, and Ricky Lutton at tighthead.
The rest of the pack is unchanged, with Peter Browne and Franco van der Merwe paired in the second row and Robbie Diack, Chris Henry and Nick Williams selected in the loose forward positions.
Rory Scholes comes into the backline and is named on the right wing, with Craig Gilroy moving to full-back and Jacob Stockdale retained on the left wing.
With Sammy Arnold injured, Stuart Olding will switch from full-back to inside centre. He will be joined in midfield by the in-form Luke Marshall – who this week signed a contract extension – while Ruan Pienaar and Paddy Jackson will continue their half-back partnership.
Kiss admitted that the 23-13 loss to Cardiff made for a “disappointing week” and with a two-week break looming, he wants his side to sign off with victory against a Zebre side that are second-from-bottom in the table and lost 27-10 at home to second-from-top Leinster.
“We’ve been working on it at training and meetings,” said the Australian.
“We know it hasn’t been the best of our form.
“Every team goes through these patches, but we have to come up with solutions to ward it off and get back on the front foot.
“Expectations should be big and we don’t want to hide from that. We can certainly do things better. I don’t want to talk about riots, I want to be optimistic.
“Maybe there’s a bit of confidence missing with some of them at the minute. We have to do the job this week to make the two-week break a good place to be.
“Every point matters. Last week, letting away one, these matter. We have to nail the job in front of us to the best of our ability at every given moment.”
Meanwhile, PRO12 pacesetters Connacht travel to Edinburgh tonight (7.35pm, live on TG4) and the home side’s ranks have been swelled by the return of Scotland trio Matt Scott, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Rory Sutherland.
Connacht, who have won their last five games in all competitions, include Ireland tighthead Nathan White. Fit-again lock Quinn Roux, number eight John Muldoon, scrum-half Kieran Marmion and wing Danie Poolman also come in.
In tonight’s other PRO12 game, third place Scarlets host bottom side Treviso at Parc y Scarlets (7.05pm).
Ulster: C Gilroy; R Scholes, L Marshall, S Olding, J Stockdale; P Jackson, R Pienaar; K McCall, R Herring, R Lutton, P Browne, F van der Merwe, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams
Replacements: J Andrew, C Black, A Warwick, R Wilson, S Reidy, P Marshall, S Windsor, D Cave
Zebre: M Muliaina; G Toniolatti, G Bisegni, T Castello, K Van Zyl; E Padovani, F Semenzato; A De Marchi, O Fabiani, D Chistolini; Q Geldenhuys, M Bortolami; E Caffini, J Meyer, F Ruzza
Replacements: E Coria, G Roan, P Ceccarelli, G Koegelenberg, F Cristiano, L Burgess, I McKinley, U Beyers
