Ulster head coach, Mark Anscombe, has plenty to concern him ahead of this Friday’s big Heineken Cup Pool Four clash against Glasgow Warriors at Ravenhill.
It looks as though centre, Luke Marshall, will not be available for selection after suffering a finger injury in the 47-17 win over Scarlets last Friday night in the PRO12.
Dan Tuohy and Jared Payne also have question marks over their availability.
Both Tuohy and Mashall will be reassessed today. Tuohy, who had just returned from a calf injury sustained four weeks ago was forced off against Scarlets four minutes from the end of the first half.
“He is a real concern for us,” admitted Anscombe.
“It looks like the same problem, but it is a case of waiting and seeing how things progress over the weekend.”
Jared Payne had been troubled by a niggly groin strain and was rested for the Munster game a fortnight ago. It was understood he was due to play against Scarlets but broke down in training.
“Again Jared is a big concern. Hopefully the additional rest period will settle things down for him,” added Anscombe.
Ulster will be able to welcome back Rory Best and Iain Henderson. The Irish internationals watched from the Grandstand on Friday night, rested under the IRFU player welfare programme.
Although Ulster collected five match points and extended their lead at the top of the PRO12 to 11 points going into a short break from domestic action, there were a number of issues which gave Anscombe concern ahead of the visit of Glasgow this week.
The Scottish side moved into second place in the PRO12 after a big win over Benetton Treviso and they are currently on a run of form.
Anscombe said: “We were flat in the first half, lost possession and just did not play well. Some of the guys have had time off, some have been at National camp and I suppose it can take longer than we hope to get back up and running again as we would like.
“There was no energy, we were not accurate we were poor at the breakdown and you just cannot turn any pressure on if you are turning over ball the way we did,” he added.
Ulster blew Scarlets away in the second half with a five-try salvo and while Anscombe was pleased to take five points against the team who had started the evening in second place, he was unhappy with some aspects of the back 40 performance.
He continued; “There were good aspects, we scored some good tries, but there are still areas we have to be better at.
“That was a lazy soft try we gave away at the end. Those sorts of things just put a wee dampener on things.
“Look, it is a good win and I am really happy with it. You rarely get a five pointer against the Scarlets, so it is a good result for us. Maybe I should be enjoying the win, but that was a soft try and our defence was soft at other times as well and Glasgow next week are strong and we cannot afford to do those sorts of things.”
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