Dan ​Soper’s call for Ulster to embrace ‘novelty factor’ in South Africa

The fixture was meant to originally be played in mid-October as part of a two-game mini-tour which saw Ulster beat the Lions in Johannesburg.

But when they arrived in Durban the squad was hit with a bout of sickness and the game postponed.

Ulster played back-to-back games in the Rainbow Nation at the end of March and the start of April last year then had to go back to South Africa in June to face the Stormers in the URC semi-final.

Despite it becoming a frequent trip, Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper believes there is still uniqueness to games in South Africa for northern hemisphere sides.

“I think there is still a wee bit of a novelty factor for the squad that is going and there is an excitement, but I suppose it is like anything – the more you do it the more you get used to it,” said Soper. “You adapt with the challenge of the travel, you know what to expect.

"So the players will have learned from their previous trips, so it definitely becomes less of an issue.

“It is like any new challenge that is thrown at you.

"Hopefully, the more you do it, the better you get at it.”

“We have taken things that we have learned on previous trips and factored that into our preparation this week and then what we’ll do next week because obviously we’ll come start back and it will be a pretty tight turnaround to get to Cardiff next Saturday.

“It is a challenge but, in fairness to the medical teams and the athletic performance team, there has been a lot of thought put into how we can best prepare ourselves and how we go about this week and physically preparing for the game.”

The Sharks are missing their Springbok players, but Soper is still expecting a tough test at Kings Park.

“Last weekend the Lions were very good for most of the game, but the Sharks eventually overpowered them,” he said. “They have some really dangerous players, they have some really powerful players.

"And it is going to be a really exciting challenge for us.”

There are only five regular season games remaining in the URC and last Friday’s defeat in Glasgow has left Ulster in a fight to secure a top-four finish and home quarter-final at Kingspan Stadium.

“For the natural punter it is quite exciting when you look at the league table,” said Soper. “It is still in our control.

"If we go and perform and win games, we should be in a position to get a home quarter-final.

“If we don’t perform, we are going to rely on results elsewhere.

"And that is never a nice place to be.”

Scrum half John Cooney, who becomes eligible for Scotland this week, will travel with Ulster and is likely to start against the Sharks.

World Cup-winning No 8 Duane Vermeulen and full back Michael Lowry return after missing the trip to Scotstoun.

But back-three trio Rob Baloucoune, Rob Lyttle and Ben Moxham are all ruled out.