Ulster ready for new challenge

Dan McFarland’s side clash with the Stormers on Saturday before meeting the Bulls a week later in their quest to be the first northern hemisphere side to win in the Rainbow nation in the United Rugby Championship.

The Stormers have won their last four games in the URC and as well as their power game McFarland’s side will also have to deal with the intense heat in Cape Town not only during the game but training in the lead up to it.

“Training is a little different,” said McFarland.

“It’s very hot, you have to manage your ammo but you’ve got to acclimatise.

“You’ve seen that in the games over the last number of weeks, sides have definitely struggled with the heat, not even the northern hemisphere sides, the South African sides won’t find it easy to play in that heat, but it’s very different for us.

“There is an acclimatisation to it, but there is a job to do so we have to do the same preparation processes that we would in any week.

“It may vary slightly because you’re staying in a hotel.

“The gyms are different, the facilities are different, you’re on a bus to go to training, but all in all, everything we usually do in a week we still have to tick off.

“Just because you’re away doesn’t mean you don’t do it.

“If you don’t, you’ll be in trouble, and this will be tricky enough without any other problems.”

McFarland is hoping Ulster can fight power with power.

“We’ve a chunk of power ourselves,” said the Ulster head coach.

“There is a definite noticeable difference in the rugby,

“Watching them over the last number of weeks, they do have this big power game, they hit you like a hammer to open up the cracks, and when the game gets a bit loose they’ve a tremendous amount of speed.

“If you’re not fully connected in what you’re doing they’ll cause you all sorts of problems, I back our lads though.

“We’ll get 100% effort to achieve that because we have goals to finish as high as we can in the league and winning in South Africa is a big part of that.”

The game will carry extra significence as well as it will be the first ever time Ulster have faced the Stormers in a league game.

“It’s a brand new mountain to climb...the Stormers in South Africa, we’ve never done that before,” said McFarland.

“It’s not like Leinster where, as good as they are, you’ve prepped for them a number of times, you know the kind of team they are, and you’re used to it.

“This is totally different, we’ve never played the Stormers before and we haven’t played in conditions like this for a number of years.

“We do a really good job in terms of watching them, analysing them, the specifics of what they give is big power-running forwards, their maul is good.

“Frans Malherbe might be back this week, Steven Kitschoff on the other side of the scrum, two big powerful props, they’ve got a tremendous number eight in Evan Roos.

“Their forward pack is really good, their 10 and 15 kick the ball a long way and they’ve tremendous pace across the back.

“Any kind of broken play becomes very dangerous. Being able to deal with their power game up front, and being tremendously connected against the transition.”