It’s been a bruising time for Ulster with four defeats in five games now cluttering their roster following the last-gasp reverse to Munster on New Year’s Day.
More damage has also been shipped apart from on the scoreboard as prop Marty Moore, who was carted from the field around the half hour mark against Munster, sustained what was described in a medical report as “a significant knee injury”.
Head coach Dan McFarland went further and reckoned that Moore’s injury could be season-ending which, if so, is a massive blow to the northern province’s plans.
Fortunately for Ulster, Tom O’Toole is likely available again for Saturday’s non-negotiable winning outcome at Benetton Treviso following an abdomen problem which has kept him out since the province were nilled at Sale in their European opener, the second in a worrying sequence of three straight losses last month.
Along with O’Toole, it is also hoped that Rob Herring, Alan O’Connor and Ian Madigan — the latter not having played since injuring his knee against the Ospreys in early October — will be fit to make the trip to northern Italy as McFarland is also expected to apply some rotation to his squad.
Whereas the Ulster head coach was unusually blunt in the immediate aftermath of the 15-14 reverse to Munster — Ben Healy having touched down and then added the two points to seal the game in its final moments — when describing the performance as “we were terrible”, he was more upbeat about things two days later despite an atmosphere of growing criticism of his team’s recent performances.
“I’m a believer in context and there is context to the situation we’re in,” he said.
“Sometimes bad momentum can snowball and that can be kicked off by a shocking second half by us against Leinster and I meant that in that it shocked us that they were able to pile the points on after we’d done so well.
Self-belief
“That’s like a punch in the face and you come into the next week and get the situation with the travel to Sale and you’re playing a team that let’s face it just put 40 points on the English champions [Leicester Tigers].
“And then we know what it’s like to have three halves where you go ‘oh’. So, it’s not letting that hit you and believing in what you do.
“If you believe in what you’re doing and you believe in what you’ve got then you weather through those, you work through them.
“I know that we have the ingredients for top quality and potentially championship winning … are we favourites or likely [favourites], no … but I do know we have the potential to play at that level.
“At the moment, we’ve just slipped off a bit for a number of reasons. We’ll get back there.”
