It’s unusual these days to be venturing into unknown territory but, weather permitting, Ulster are facing a first visit to Amsterdam where host side the Cheetahs await them for round three of the Challenge Cup.
With a resounding maximum point victory over Racing 92 and two bonus points from the loss at Cardiff already in the bag, the northern province are on the cusp of qualifying from Pool Three but will need to deal with the winless and bottom-placed South Africans who have yet to earn a point.
As such, Richie Murphy is expected to dabble in some squad rotation for this fixture, with some fringe players being blended in alongside a few more experienced operators who are expected to make the trip to the NRCA Stadium.
Rory Best on how Ulster have turned things around
One player certainly not turning out is Jacob Stockdale, and though the in-form 29-year-old would have likely been rested anyway, he shipped a rib injury in last week’s 28-3 win over Munster with no specified timeframe given for being on the sidelines.
READ MORE
With Juarno Augustus already rehabbing an ankle issue and the workloads of Nick Timoney and David McCann being heavy, some form of new-look back row could be deployed with Sean Reffell a likely candidate for involvement.
Lock Charlie Irvine is out due to his calf problem and Michael Lowry’s ankle means that he continues to be uninvolved while the absent Ethan McIlroy (ribs) and Stewart Moore (hand) may open the door for Bradley McNamara to feature at 15.
Ulster assistant coach Willie Faloon stressed that regardless of what team the northern province put out, they must deliver against the Cheetahs who have former northern province favourite Ruan Pienaar on their coaching roster.
“Because it’s an unknown team (not in the URC) and we’re not sure exactly what’s going to show up, I think it’s really important that we prepare our best and be prepared to give the best performance we can,” said Faloon whose responsibility covers defence.
“Going over to Amsterdam will be different, but we obviously want to go out there and put in a really good performance,” he added.
“We’ve played a few South African teams already at this stage, so we know that they’re big, athletic, and that they’re strong,
“They’ll move the ball around, they (the Cheetahs) have some fantastic guys on the wing and, if it gets loose, they’ve got a lot of potent threats.”
Ulster kept their try line intact for the first time this season against Munster and Faloon will be looking for more of the same in the Netherlands.
“It’s (the defence) something we’ve been trying to push on.
“We were trying to put more pressure on opposition teams and to force errors, and I think it’s been a gradual, steady build sort of thing.
“I don’t think we’ve had huge, huge games, but I think there’s been constant improvements, and that’s how we’re trying to go about our game at the minute, is continually getting better.”
