BKT URC Week 3: Connacht v Ulster (KO: 7:45PM) AT Sportsground Stadium, Galway
ULSTER coach Dan McFarland is hoping to exorcise the demons of last year’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final when his side face Connacht this Saturday.
Despite finishing second in the league table and defeating Connacht twice in the regular season, The Ulstermen were defeated at Ravenhill 15-10 in the knockout stage of last year’s tournament.
Having started the season with two wins, Ulster will hope to push on in the first inter-provincial derby of the season and will use last season’s pain-staking defeat to help them get the better of their western rivals.
McFarland said: “The last time we met (them) we didn’t do ourselves justice, Connacht played very well in that game and we had one of our worst games of the season.
“There definitely is a poignancy to the history around that. We need heart, passion and a little feeling of letting ourselves down the last time but also we need to be clinical and play good rugby.”
Ulster come into this week on the back of a 26-19 victory over the Vodacom Bulls, from Pretoria in South Africa, in their first home game of the season and the first game on their new artificial surface.
McFarland, who has been in charge of the Ulster squad since 2018, has switched the focus of his playing style this year to expand the play more and utilize the backs more in attack.
“We’ve done a lot on our counter-attack and transition game and we can see the evidence of that on the field,” said the former Connacht player and coach.
“I think Jacob (Stockdale) and Rob (Baloucoune) carried the ball as much as some of our forwards so that’s evidence that we’re getting them more involved in the game so I’m very pleased with how that side of the attack is going.”
Last weekend’s game did leave McFarland’s side in a bit of a pinch going into their clash with the Westerners, as Cormac Izuchukwu and Dave Ewers sustained head injuries during Sunday’s BKT URC victory over Vodacom Bulls and will have to follow protocol before returning to the field.
Kieran Treadwell will also be unavailable for selection, after sustaining a hip injury in training last week.
Tom O'Toole, who featured for Ireland in the Rugby World Cup, has been suffering from a chronic groin injury for which he will have surgery this week.
He will remain unavailable for selection for approximately a month.
McFarland said: “He was going to take the three-week break with all of the other Ireland players but he got an update and we found that it would be preferable and better if he were to get the surgery earlier.”
O’Toole played the entire 80 minutes of last weekend’s game and won the man of the match against the South African side.
“Tom was always going to play a big chunk of that game but he was so good, in tight games like these then you have to have a legitimately positive reason for making changes.”