Dan McFarland reflects on Ulster’s pre-season defeat

It’s a chance to get valuable game time into the legs before the league campaign starts, a chance to maybe show off some new moves that had been worked on during the break or an opportunity for the fans to catch a glimpse of any new signing.

Ulster’s home 45-21 defeat against Saracens on Friday night at Kingspan Stadium certainly falls under the curious definition.

For long periods of the game Ulster matched the former English and European champions yet conceded seven tries.

The visitors scored four tries in 11 minutes during the first after Matty Rea had given Ulster the lead.

A hat-trick in an eight-minute spell in the last quarter from winger Ben Harris sealed the game for Mark McCall’s side.

In between Saracens two scoring blitzes, Ulster had rallied from a 26-7 half time deficit to get back within five points of the Barnet-based side, aided by the visitor’s replacement scrum-half Ivan van Zyl being shown a straight red card for taking Craig Gilroy out in the air.

All three of Ulster’s tries came from their most potent weapon last season the driving maul but defensive lapses gifted Harris two of his three tries.

One of the positives for head coach Dan McFarland was the impact of new signing Mick Kearney.

The former Leinster and Zebre lock has been signed on a short-term contact and he had several impressive carries, prompting McFarland to claim his recruitment was a “shrewd piece of business.”

“I know Mick very well from my time at Connacht with him, he has been really good in training, he’s literally been here a week-and-a-half but Mick looks after himself,” added McFarland.

“Physically he was in pretty decent shape, obviously not the shape that he needs to be in to play our type of game but good enough to put in a good showing.

“Mick is a good rugby player, he’s very experienced, a tough man, he is a good size, a good set piece forward, he carries well, hits rucks, works hard off the ball and makes tackles and he has been a really good professional for a long time.”

Ulster conclude their pre-season campaign by going to London to face Saracens on Thursday evening (5pm) which will give McFarland and his coaching staff 11 days to prepare for the United Rugby Championship opener against Glasgow.

“We will see a few of our Ireland players for the game on Thursday,” he said.

“There are a couple of guys who are just finishing their way back from injury that probably won’t play, I think maybe five or six of the guys that were involved with Ireland will play 40 minutes.

“I’ve always liked to have a weekend between the last friendly and the first game of the season,” McFarland added.

“It’s not always possible with what it takes to arrange games. I prefer it that way.

“When you play friendlies at the start of the season there’s always a physical fall-out. Obviously not everyone plays in both games but I always like to have that weekend’s grace in case someone picks up one of those six or seven-day injuries.

“This year, we’ve worked really hard in the five-week block up to next Thursday.

“We’ll give the guys a few days off after that which will be a regeneration period for them to bring them into the following week when we start our preparation for Glasgow.”