It doesn’t appear to get any easier for Ulster as six days after absorbing a record European defeat at Toulouse – shipping 61 points and nine tries – the northern province host Bordeaux-Bègles, another side in rather ominous-looking form.
While Antoine Dupont and others helped run Richie Murphy’s side ragged last Sunday at Stade Ernest-Wallon, something not too similar was thrown at Leicester Tigers – who did at least claim a try bonus from their visit to France’s west coast – by a Bordeaux unit containing the rampant Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Matthieu Jalibert and Damian Penaud.
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All rather worrying for Ulster, going from playing the European champions and current Top 14 leaders on a Sunday to facing the second-placed side in the Top 14 less than a week later.
Pool One could quickly get away from Ulster, who are propping it up after the opening round, should they fail to register a positive result on Saturday. If things do go badly it will also bring into sharp focus a very damaging looking fourth successive defeat in all competitions for Murphy’s squad.
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The province look set to put out a stronger selection than the one that started at Toulouse, with Iain Henderson, Cormac Izuchukwu, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole and Nick Timoney all likely starters. It is by no means clear that either Ben Carson or Stewart Moore will have shaken off knocks picked up last weekend, while John Cooney’s hamstring issue, shipped in the URC loss to Leinster, may yet allow him return to the matchday squad.
Stressing that there were positives from Ulster’s hammering on Sunday – maul defence and scrums being mentioned – assistant coach Dan Soper had to admit that playing certain teams will always be massively challenging, and he put Bordeaux in that bracket.
“The thing is when you play a team like Toulouse, Bordeaux, Leinster, a team at the top, they keep asking questions relentlessly for 80 minutes and you might get it right two, three, four times, but they keep coming back with five, six, seven questions and at the very top that’s the tough thing,” said Soper.
“I’ve no doubt we’ll be better this week in some things than last time, but the big thing is can we be better in every moment of the game?”
Focusing on what Bordeaux will likely bring to Belfast, he said: “A massive forward pack who can suck the life out of you up front and backs who have an incredible ability to turn moments of nothing into something quite spectacular.
“Bordeaux, like Toulouse, also have threats at the breakdown that can stop the flow of your attacks, so we need to be better in those three areas. Can we deal with what’s coming up front? Can we stay in the moment to not allow their backs to have those transitional moments? Can we sort our breakdown out that allows our attack to get a bit of flow in the game?”
Ulster face some searching questions.
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