Ulster Head coach Dan McFarland wants his side to be physical against Connacht

The Ulster supremo was critical of his side’s physicality, particularly in the first half, of their eventual 19-12 win against Munster last weekend.

“Is a performance like last week going to be good enough, then no,” admitted McFarland.

However, Ulster are still on a fine run of form, unbeaten in their last four games and having recorded six wins in their last seven outings in all competitions.

But Connacht are currently on a fine run themselves, having lost one game in their last six encounters.

And they are currently aiming to put a third straight win over Ulster, having won the corresponding fixture in Galway last year (44-16) and securing a rare win (22-15) in Belfast - their first in over 60 years - at the start of October.

That was a defeat which really hurt Ulster, but they have come a long way since then, sitting second in their pool in Europe and second in PRO14’s Conference B.

McFarland admitted he just wanted to see his side improve and certainly last week’s performance in spite of the win over Munster did not match what had gone before in the back-to-back bonus point wins over Scarlets in Europe.

“I do not think, in Galway, a similar performance (to last week) would be good enough.” he said.

“We have to show more physicality at the start of the game than we did here.

“It was not that we were not physical at the start of the game, they out physicaled us.

“I think they came to bash our runners because the guys had done such a good job in the Scarlets game and that is what it looked like.

“We did not really get the momentum on the ball, the speed of the ball, that we needed to play the game we wanted to play. I think the same thing will happen in Galway.

“It is Christmas time at the Sportsground, the crowd will be up for it, the players will be loving it, we will have to try and dampen down their spirits, certainly with matching their physicality first of.”

The suspension of Robert Baloucoune for two weeks yesterday would have forced Ulster’s hand in selection as well as the normal rotation around this period of festive derbies in the PRO14 leading into two huge European Cup final pool matches.

The young winger was sin-binned after just 11 seconds for a reckless challenge on Munster’s Darren Sweetnam.

The majority of onlookers - with the exception of McFarland (who believed it was a yellow card) thought the youngster should have seen red.

A disciplinary panel in Edinburgh yesterday upheld a citing complaint and a four week ban was imposed on Baloucoune - who scored a second half try - reduced to two weeks on account of his clean disciplinary record, his admission his actions merited a red card and his and the club’s co-operation.

McFarland made three changes to his backline for the game tonight, Angus Kernohan coming in for Baloucoune, while Darren Cave (centre) and Johnny McPhillips (outhalf) are given rare starts this season.

The other change comes up front where Nick Timoney comes in for Sean Reidy.

Henry Speight will start on the wing, making his last appearance for Ulster before his return to Australia.

Connacht who suffered agony last weekend in Dublin when coughing up a 17-point advantage against Leinster to lose with a final minute try 33-29, have also made several changes.

Lock Quinn Roux and flanker Sean O’Brien return to the starting team. The inclusion of hooker Shane Delahunt and tight head Conor Carey are head coach Andy Friend’s other two changes.

Connacht: D Leader, C Kelleher, T Farrell, B Aki, K Godwin, J Carty, C Blade; D Buckley, S Delahunt, C Carey, G Thornbury, Q Roux, S O’Brien, C Fainga’a, J Butler (capt).

Replacements:D Heffernan, P McCabe, D Robertson-McCoy, U Dillane, P Boyle, J Mitchell, D Horwitz, S Fitzgerald.

Ulster: L Ludik; H Speight, W Addison, D Cave, A Kernohan; J McPhillips, J Cooney; E O’Sullivan, R Herring (capt), M Moore, I Nagle, K Treadwell, N Timoney, J Murphy, M Coetzee.

Replacements: A McBurney, T O’Hagan, R Kane, C Ross, G Jones, D Shanahan, P Nelson, S McCloskey.