Head coach Mark Anscombe insists Ulster will go to France next week to “finish the job” and seal a home quarter-final berth in the Heineken Cup.
Ulster became the first club to secure a place in the last eight of this season’s competition – but to be in with a shout of getting one of the four home draws they will have to win in France for the first time in a competitive fixture when they meet Castres.
Tries from Nick Williams, Jared Payne and Darren Cave – with two penalties and a conversion from Ruan Pienaar – sealed a 23-6 win over Glasgow at Ravenhill on Friday night.
But once again the gloss was taken off the victory with more injury worries for the Irish Province. Williams, Craig Gilroy and Paddy Jackson all suffered knocks – with Williams a major doubt for next week.
Northampton Saints did Ulster a favour by defeating second-placed Castres.
The English side could still mathematically finish level with points with Ulster, but Anscombe’s side have a better head-to-head with Saints.
In terms of qualifying as pool winners already, Anscombe said: “I think it is a tremendous achievement for this group of players to have qualified for the last eight after five rounds of the competition.
“We got the job done tonight. It was not pretty at times, but we did slog it out and credit to the guys for their efforts
“Qualifying for the last eight is one thing, but we targeted a home quarter-final and we are not resting on what we have achieved we are going to France next week to get the next part of that job done.
“We want to reward ourselves and our fans by giving them a home quarter-final and I think if we do not do that we will have let ourselves down in a way.”
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