Head coach Richie Murphy feels Ulster travel to Thomond Park with the strongest squad they have had available for the ‘must win’ URC clash against Munster.

Murphy will welcome back skipper Iain Henderson – as well as a host of Irish internationals including Rob Baloucoune, Mike Lowry, Eric O’Sullivan and Tom O’Toole – plus Stuart Moore and Sean Reffell.

Ulster sit 12th in the table and anything less than a win at Thomond Park on Friday would end their league play-off hopes and mean the province would miss out on playing in the Champions Cup for the first time since the tournament’s inception in 1995.

“It’s probably the strongest squad that we've worked with...definitely this season and probably since I've been here,” reasoned Murphy. “Loads of names on the pitch, which is fantastic, exactly what you need when you come into, I suppose, a big finish to the league.

placeholder image — Ulster head coach Richie Murphy. (Photo by Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press)

“It’s a massive boost for the group...just training on Tuesday, when we go 15 on 15 where we've really relied on our Academy this year and they’ve done a really good job, it's nice to actually see quite a few senior faces on the pitch at the same time.

“We've done a three-team rotation with our Academy this morning, with three teams training against each other.

“The Academy have gone off and done their own work and we've got two teams against each other, which is really strong, which is not a position we've been in all year.”

Ulster are three points outside the play-off places while Munster are three places ahead of Murphy’s side.

“Two games to go, no-one really knows what figure it will be, but we're pretty sure that we need to win our last two games,” he said. “We went down there last year, put in a really good performance, got ourselves into a really good space, unfortunately, lost the game in that second half.

“I think we were 17-7 up, with 50 or 55, 58 minutes gone, if we can get ourselves into that position this year we need to be able to finish it off.”

“I suppose it's one of the things that has been obvious, even coming back off the Sharks game...getting into the nice position and not finishing it off, it's something that we need to be very much on our game this week.”

Murphy is under no illusion how difficult getting a result in Limerick will be, especially as it’s set to mark some of Munster’s long-serving players with a last home inter-pro.

“Once they're in Thomond, it's always a massive challenge with the three lads leaving,” said Murphy. “‘Arch’ (Stephen Archer), Pete (O’Mahony) and Connor Murray...they'll have a big emotional attachment to this game.

“We've got to make sure that we're not found wanting in that regard, it's something that we've talked about during the week.

“We just need to be on the right side of it, but make sure that we match them with the physicality stakes.”

Despite losing the last three games, Murphy still feels confidence is high in the Ulster camp.

“I wouldn't say we're picking the guys up,” he said. “I think guys feel like we're moving in the right direction.

“When we look at the game statistically, the numbers that we value, we can see an upward trajectory in how we're playing, we're also playing against really good teams.”