Roddy Grant highlights 'differences' as Ulster get ready for Bath

​Gone are the traditional home and away fixtures in the pool – instead Ulster will face four different teams. After Bath, Racing 92 travel to Belfast before a home game against Toulouse in the new year and a trip to Harlequins.

Cardiff make up the pool but sides from their own league don’t play each other.

Ulster forwards coach Roddy Grant believes the new format won’t make that much of a difference even if the Kingspan Stadium side don’t have to travel to France in the pool stages.

“We've traditionally done well in France...La Rochelle we lost, Toulouse, Clermont, every team you play is tough and Bath away is no easy game,” said Grant. “It's great having French teams at home from an atmospheric point of view.

“If we were playing away in France I'd be saying I was really looking forward to the challenge...there's an answer for both scenarios.

“You still end up spending the same amount of hours (preparing), it doesn't make a difference I wouldn't say, different teams and challenges.

“Bath, it's interesting...in a bigger sense, a coaching sense, it's another team you don't look at.

“Coaches spending hours and hours looking at footage, if you play them twice it's double that amount.

“It's nice, it's refreshing having a new team.“The Premiership is different to the URC, they kick a lot more statistically, personnel are different.

“It's the best players in Europe and Bath have a lot of them...guys like Finn Russell and English internationals.

“It's exciting, there are differences to be aware of, it's not a different game, tactics maybe, how the game unfolds compared to what you're used to.”

Ulster travel to the Rec after back-to-back defeats in the URC and Grant is determined the province don’t suffer a repeat of their form around December and January last season when they lost six out of seven games.

“There's always pressure in pro sport, there's always expectation in pro sport and there's always expectation at Ulster,” said Grant. “I wouldn't say there's anything additional to what it is every week...we prepare to win and that's the expectation from the group.

“It's frustrating when you're capable of winning but don't.

"I suppose the pressure from within the group and the standards make it frustrating.“It's more from within the group than external pressure.”

“It's pro sport and you need to win every game, the reality is that you don't.

“That's very much on everyone's mind...pressure, expectations, we prepare to win every game.

“It's something different, a different competition, a team you don't play regularly, a Premiership side.

“Al O'Connor spoke really well in the changing room afterwards (Edinburgh), a very mature, very honest assessment.

“It's something we're focused on this week, when you get errors in games a lot of that can be helped by how you train.”

Grant added: “That's a big focus from everyone, coaches, players, leaders really driving that this week and having a really good week of intense, accurate training.

“It's a new competition, huge game, Bath are going good, away from home against some really

good players.

“It's easy enough in the sense of motivation, getting up for it.

“It was more frustrating that mistakes and not being clinical, coughing up the ball a lot, falling off some tackles, that was the more frustrating bit rather than just a win or a loss, as tough as a loss is in pro sport.”