Ulster's Roddy Grant calls for collective drive in Cardiff clash

The Welsh side will arrive in Belfast this week for Friday night’s United Rugby Championship clash.

Ulster are looking to bounce back after Saturday’s second-half capitulation in Clermont when the hosts scored 33 unanswered points en route to a 53-14 victory.

That was a third defeat in four games for the Kingspan Stadium club since Richie Murphy took over as interim coach following Dan McFarland’s exit.

Ulster have also lost three of their last four URC games, a record which has left them sitting eighth in the table and in a dogfight to make the play-offs.

However, Cardiff have lost their last seven games and are still awaiting a first win in 2024.

“Cardiff are a good side, the results they've had have been one score games, and there are some that haven't been,” said Grant. “They're a good squad with international players, they'll have had a couple weeks preparing just for us.

“We know it's going to be a tough game, everyone's got an opinion on how a game will be but we're preparing for it to be a really tough game and a really important game.

“Every game is a must win, who knows? Looking at the table, it's tight.

“Other teams’ fixtures, you can never predict things but you're always looking at other teams seeing if they win, that adds all sorts.

“Very important game, we all know that we've all seen the table so everyone's aware of it.”

“Pro sport, you need to win, if you look at any sport...Formula One, anything - you've got to be winning.

“Individually we're driven people, everyone wants to win and if we didn't we wouldn't be in pro sport.”

If Ulster are to make the URC play-offs and the Champions Cup, Grant knows a lot of improvement is needed in the last five league games.

“Probably most areas...forwards, backs, team, attack and defence,” he said. “We need to look after the ball a lot more...a lot of the things are linked, so if we get turned over or we have a lot of errors or give away a lot of penalties, other areas come under pressure.

“Working away a little bit on each area...that's the focus, week to week.

“It's an important part of the season now, as was last week being a quarter-final leading into the league.

“Everyone is aware we need those improvements, and they need to happen quick.”

Grant is hoping to find a quick fix to Ulster’s problems.

“We know what gives teams momentum, territory, possession, line breaks...not looking after the ball,” he said. “Everyone knows that gives momentum, it's never a game of shadow rugby, there's always someone wanting to do something different.

“Those are big moments and we need to be doing better on those.

"Looking at results and the games we've lost, we've lost those big moments clearly and that's led on to a poor second half or a loss as a result.”