John Cooney says breakdown improvement vital if Ulster are to progress in European Challenge Cup

Ulster travel to Clermont at lunchtime today hoping to reach the last four of the competition for a second time in four years.

The 40-17 win in Montpellier flattered Ulster with the home side shipping a red card while leading 17-7 and three yellow cards in a chaotic second half.

And despite the win, Cooney was concerned with the breakdown.

Ulster were turned over eight times in Montpellier, while in the defeat against the Sharks the province conceded 11 turnovers.

“It’s a frustrating one, as a half back I want to hit as little breakdowns as I can and that’s a good sign, and against Racing I don’t think I hit any and our breakdown was beautiful and quick,” Cooney said.

“So I’m not trying to hit as many as I can. It’s difficult but I feel like it’s something we need to work on and get better [at], but I feel other teams are targeting us as well.

“If you watch Edinburgh, those type of teams are coming over late so we might put two bodies in, but they are coming over late so our ability to scan needs to get better, to really win contacts needs to get better.

“I’m sure I can get in and get the ball out quicker when it’s not a perfect scenario. Maybe sometimes I look for perfect ball whereas if you watch the second half, I’m just throwing out ball whatever way I can and it’s something I can do more prominently,” he added.

“I’m always looking for the perfect picture.”

Cooney is hoping the breakdown problem will be a quick fix.

“It’s a couple of things. It’s our ability to win contact better, our ability to react to who’ s meant to be in the breakdown quicker and our ability to blast past quicker; it’s several things, not just one thing otherwise we’d have fixed it by now.”

However, Cooney feels with new half-back partner Nathan Doak they can mastermind Clermont’s downfall.

“Since day one me and ‘Doaky’ have always had a really good relationship. We’ve always kicked together, we’ve always practised together.

“He’s someone I’ve always connected really well with and we’ve always tried to improve each other and push each other on.

“We’re both very competitive. If you watch us out there (training) we’d always be trying to catch each other or outrun each other.

“It’s all just a healthy competitiveness and I’ve always thought he’d be a very good out-half, and I’m not just saying that to get more game time!

“He’s got a brilliant skills set and his passing is really quick. He’s an unbelievable kicker out of hand and off the tee so I’ve always seen him as having an ability to play 10, so it’s good to see him getting some game time.”

Ulster: (15-9) Stewart Moore, Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Mike Lowry, Nathan Doak, John Cooney; (1-8) Steven Kitshoff, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (C), Harry Sheridan, David McCann, Nick Timoney.

Replacements: Tom Stewart, Andy Warwick, Scott Wilson, Cormac Izuchukwu, Dave Ewers, Jake Flannery, Ethan McIlroy, Marcus Rea.