Dan McFarland believes Ulster deserved play-off chance

The reversal means that Ulster will have no play-off game in the Pro14 for the first time in four seasons.

Ulster conceded five tries to their Irish rivals, shipped a red card and had another two players sin-binned and a penalty count of 17 against them.

Saturday night’s result confirmed Leinster as Conference A winners and Leo Cullen’s side booked their place in the Pro14 final for a fourth consecutive season.

Despite the Pro14 announcing two days before Christmas that this season’s tournament would conclude with just a final where both conference winners would advance to the decider, McFarland feels Ulster deserved a playoff game for their efforts in the league.

This season’s format, altered by the pandemic and the expected arrival of four South African teams, saw the traditional season-ending play-offs scrapped.

“In my personal opinion, if you finish second in your conference in the way the format of the league is around at the moment, you should be playing play-off games,” stated McFarland.

“We’ve earned the right to be playing a play-off game, it just seems like a real damp squib that there’s only going to be one game to finish the season, and a season where a lot of these games have been characterised by under-strength teams. Fans are surely crying out for the play-offs, games that have actual knock-out meaning.”

“The administrators of the game, the formula they have to work to is so difficult and complex, I understand it’s got to be mixed in with weekends and timings, there’s obviously commercial interests in all of that.”

“It just doesn’t seem right that there’s only one game to finish it.”

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