Ulster are in no mood to be found standing back to admire the view having secured a home semi-final in the Challenge Cup, as the northern province are intent on demonstrating that they too can chase success in two competitions.
Currently third in the URC, a place and point above Friday’s opponents Leinster, Richie Murphy’s squad are zoned in on chasing every point as the competition’s business end moves ever closer and the pressure ramps up with playoff positions up for grabs.
With an away game at Munster to come after this weekend followed by home fixtures against the Stormers and table-topping Glasgow (after their Challenge Cup semi-final in Belfast against Exeter Chiefs) there is a sense that Ulster have a rather challenging itinerary ahead.
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“We talked briefly – and when I say briefly, I mean for 30 seconds – about having a [European] semi-final to look forward to, and then we just parked it and moved on,” said Murphy about how his side have processed their six-try win over La Rochelle last Friday.
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“We just try and deal with the week that we’re in and all our focus has to be on this one game [with Leinster]. When the semi-final does come up, we’ll deal with that.
“Our focus is very much on just trying to get a little bit better this week from last week.
“They [Leinster] have a few injuries, but we can be pretty sure that the team that they send up will be full of top-class players and Irish internationals, and also will be coming to do a job on us, because at the end of the day we’re one point ahead of them in the league, and I suppose whoever doesn’t win at the weekend could end up out of the top four,” Murphy added.
Ulster have some issues of their own, with Ireland flanker Nick Timoney a doubt having picked up a hip issue during the quarter-final win over a heavily-diluted La Rochelle in which he was replaced by Bryn Ward.
Rob Herring was unavailable for last week’s tie due to a calf issue and will again miss out, while Michael Lowry is also not in line to make his comeback against Leinster.
Ulster narrowly lost when the sides last met at the Aviva in December, while their previous home interpro also didn’t go well with Connacht tasting victory last month.
“It didn’t go that well here against Connacht, so it’s really important that we bounce back,” said Murphy referencing their last interpro outing, a 26-19 home defeat to the westerners.
“The progress that we’ve made throughout the season gives us confidence going into this game, but we know how difficult it’s going to be.
“The only job we have this week is to make sure that we’re at our best when we turn up on Friday night.
“The next couple of weeks are going to be huge for us and we’re going to be under a lot of pressure because we’re playing a lot of really top teams, but that’s exactly where you want to be.”
