Dan McFarland embracing trophy pressure ahead of Ulster’s final test

David Humphreys’ dramatic drop goal at the Ospreys in 2006 sealed the Celtic and Ulster have gone empty-handed ever since.

Coach Dan McFarland is savouring the opportunity to bring silverware back to Belfast.

“I’ve spoken to them (the team) about the fact we want the pressure on us because if you don’t have the pressure on you, I genuinely don’t believe you care enough,” commented the coach. “We promised ourselves our goal was to win silver(ware) as hard as that is and the fact only one team can do it, that’s what we said, that’s the only thing we wanted.

“With that comes pressure to perform to the level you know you can and also the pressure of the fact if you lose there’s a huge amount of pain afterwards.

“In sport if the losses don’t hurt then the wins never mean as much, how can you possibly enjoy the heights of winning if you don’t know the massive lows of losing?

“The losses are only low if they mean a lot to you, so that’s why we put pressure on ourselves.”

McFarland is hoping for another big performance from Marcell Coetzee - the South African made 18 carries, 10 tackles and won two turnovers in the victory over Edinburgh last weekend.

His imperious work at the breakdown could be a key factor to Ulster winning in Dublin.

“Well he’s a massive player, physically he’s massive but he also makes clutch plays and in those games you need clutch players,” said McFarland. “Johnny Sexton is a clutch player, when you need him to kick a penalty to the corner and land it five metres from the goal line he pulls it out of the bag.

“Marcell, when you need a jackal because you’re under pressure, he just pulls it out of the bag.

“The last 20 minutes when you need a number of regular, muscular carries he’ll do that for you.

“He works tirelessly for us and he’s a great man to have around, he’s what a lot of people or psychologists would describe as ‘social glue’.

“He doesn’t lead in the sense of telling people what to do the whole time but he has a way about him that pulls people together and can make people think as if they’re part of it and they’re important.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Marcell.”

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