Matty Rea says it is time for Ulster to stand up and deliver on big stage

Dan McFarland’s side travel to Edinburgh hoping to take a step closer to ending a 14-year trophy drought on Saturday.

Ulster’s last win on the road outside Ireland in a knockout game came at Murrayfield when they beat Edinburgh 27-21 to win the 2003 Celtic Cup, since then they have lost to Northampton and Saracens in European quarter-finals, Leinster at Twickenham in the Heineken Cup final and two Pro Rugby semi-finals at Glasgow.

Last year’s quarter-final win over Connacht at Kingspan Stadium is the province’s only victory in their last seven knockout games.

“We have been talking about it every year since I’ve been here where we have been in these situations and we talk about learning from it, we have done what we have had to do in terms of learning and I don’t think we can really use that as an excuse any more our actions on the field have to back that up,” said Rea.

“Regardless of what went on in the past it is a knockout game and these are the games that we have talked about as a group of how we want to go about these situations.

“It is a massive opportunity for us as a group to take that step forward.

“It’s an opportunity for us as a group just not to talk about how we could have done better and what we could have done we want to go out and show it.

“We want to be one of those teams that is competing for championships every year, so this is the first opportunity that has come this season and we have to be on the money this weekend,” he added.

“It’s weird that it is the business end of the season already; at the start of the season these are the situations you want to be in, this is what we have been looking for to and building for probably since we were beat by Glasgow last year.

“It is a massive game for us and a massive opportunity regardless of the circumstances and it comes down to whoever puts their best foot forward on the pitch will come out on top.”

Rea was Ulster’s joint top tackler with Marcell Coetzee in last weekend’s defeat by Leinster and he knows it will be another busy night at Murrayfield trying to stop the likes of Bill Mata and Hamish Watson in the Edinburgh back row.

“I think you have to look at what their strengths are, they are pretty rounded players but we know Mata wants to get the ball out in the wide spaces.

“We have to close that down give him as little time as possible and put him under as much pressure as possible - that is a full XV effort just not the back row.

“We know what these guys can bring and we know we have to be on top of them and knowing who they look to give them momentum, to get them into the game, and we need to take that away from them as early as possible.”