Ulster’s Dan McFarland unable to confirm Marcell Coetzee timeline

With the Pro14 over, Ulster face Harlequins in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup on Sunday night.

Coetzee faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after damaging his hamstring in the defeat against Leinster at Kingspan Stadium.

The Springbok No8 gave an interview to South African media stating he wanted to get back before the end of the Rainbow Cup to prove his fitness and win a place in the Rassie Erasmus squad to face the British Lions - however, McFarland was non-committal on a return-to-play date.

“We don’t know, he has had a reasonably significant hamstring injury so he will go through the rehab process now and our medical performance team will work very hard to getting him back fit,” said McFarland.

The Ulster coach was more upbeat about the prospect of full back Will Addison seeing action before the end of the season, stating “I would be very optimistic”.

Ulster may be in the secondary European competition, but McFarland is pleased for the chance at securing silverware.

“We are very happy to be in the Challenge Cup, to play in a competition where there’s knockout rugby is brilliant,” he said. “Of course we would have loved to have been in the Champions Cup but unfortunately for us we were one spot off that and missed out.

“But the prize is a great fixture against Harlequins, who are probably the strongest team in the draw and really going to challenge us.”

“The Challenge Cup as a whole, I played and coached in it and was involved in a number of quarter-finals and semi-finals, we never ended up in a final but I love the competition and have a lot of fond memories.

“A brilliant opportunity to play play-off rugby, it was pretty heart-breaking to watch the final at the weekend.

“It would have been nice to have had another play-off in it and given the effort and the wins - but it is what it is and everyone understands that and we turn the page.”

“We have two new competitions to look forward to.”

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