‘Collective’ key for Ulster

The Stade Marcel-Michelin, with a capacity just under 20,000, is one of the most intimidating cauldrons for away teams in the competition.

Ulster have travelled to Clermont three times and lost all three but coach Dan McFarland hopes he knows the secret of how to come away with a win on Saturday evening.

“We are going to have to play as a collective, the team has got to work as a collective on both sides of the ball, particularly defensively...we have to bring collective pressure that means consistent movement around the pitch,” said McFarland. “It means being able to get off the line so we can suffocate them, any kick sprint that we use we are up in their faces and not giving them room to escape because broken field single mistakes in that collective pressure will open up the field to them.

“It’s just a fact that they have some fantastic, big, strong tackle-breaking backs who can handle and play ball.

“On the attack side of things, we have to bring tempo to the game, we have to be able to move the ball and we have to be brave in the way we play.

“Simple slow ball is not going to cut it against these guys, they are a fantastic tackling team - so we have to move the ball and make it difficult for them to target us.”

McFarland wants Ulster to be more clinical. In the victory over Leinster and the defeat by the Ospreys on Saturday Ulster spent long periods in the red zone but failed to turn possession and territorial dominance into points.

“Obviously we have to be able to take our opportunities, which was probably the only thing against the Ospreys at the weekend that we didn’t do,” said McFarland. “I thought we played really well against the Ospreys but not finishing off the opportunities we had on the field was the only thing that we didn’t do.

“This weekend I don’t envisage having 25 minutes’ possession against Clermont so the possession we do have we have to make sure we use it properly.”

One of the interesting sub-plots to Saturday is that McFarland goes head-to-head with Jono Gibbes, the coach he replaced in the Kingspan Stadium hot-seat.

“I spoke to Jono before I came here, he was on his way back from New Zealand then...we have had a few conversations and I’m looking forward to catching up with him,” he said.

Ulster’s 19-13 defeat in Swansea was compounded by injuries picked up which forced prop Eric O’Sullivan to go into the middle of the front row.

McFarland refused to comment on the injured hookers and was also reluctant to give an update on Duane Vermeulen after he missed Swansea due to testing positive for Covid-19.

Skipper Iain Henderson remains a doubt for the European opener with the hamstring injury that forced him out of Ireland v Argentina.

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