Ulster head coach Dan McFarland might privately have cursed injuries that robbed him of Irish internationals Iain Henderson (knee) and Billy Burns (groin) ahead of Friday night's opening Heineken Champions Cup pool fixture against Toulouse at the Kingspan stadium (8pm) but the public veneer demands a more phlegmatic disposition.
Burns limped off with a groin problem in Ireland’s victory over Georgia while Henderson’s knee issue that saw him retire early in the win over Scotland appears the more serious concern. The Ulster captain and secondrow was sent for a scan, the outcome of which has propelled him in the direction of a specialist to ascertain the next course of action.
Whatever rehabilitation is required it’s not going to be a short turnaround. McFarland wasn’t about to indulge in conjecture but he ventured: “We’ll hang on to that info until we have a specific timeframe but it’s not going to be a quick turnaround, I can tell you that.
“To lose your captain [Henderson] and you lose your 10 as well, that’s a difficult one but again we’ve played a number of games over the past while and played pretty well, albeit not at the same level we’re about to face. The guys that have played while Billy [Burns] has been with Ireland have done a great job and we’ll be happy to trust in them.
Talismanic figure
“It’s a big loss; Iain is a talismanic figure for us. He’s a big game player and he’s played really big games for us in the recent past and throughout his career. Having said that, Al [O’Connor] and Sam Carter have been doing a tremendous job in the engine room.”
The absence of two important figures is destabilising enough but it’s also a top-up on an injury list that already includes backs, Will Addison, Luke Marshall, Rob Lyttle, Robert Baloucoune and Louis Ludik. Irish international secondrow Kieran Treadwell is serving a suspension.
It is a little less than two months since Ulster were beaten 36-8 by Toulouse in last season’s Champions Cup quarter-final at the Stade Ernest Wallon. Since then the Irish province has won eight successive matches in the Guinness Pro14 but that league, conducted largely during the international window, doesn’t bear comparison, quality wise, to the challenge that Ulster will face on Friday night.
McFarland, though, is adamant that his charges are playing better rugby than they were in the third week in September. “We’re playing a lot freer now than we were back then. Guys prior to the quarter-final or the start of the new block who weren’t in such good form are playing well now; we have a little bit more cohesion with some of the young fellas in the backs who didn’t get much time together prior to that.
“There are plenty of things there that have improved. Whether Toulouse have improved or not, I don’t know, I’m not sure. They will say they have because they hadn’t played many games at that stage [in September] but I know we’ve improved.”
Friday's visitors to Belfast are laden with talent and in halfbacks, Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, possess two of the most gifted playmakers in world rugby while South African World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe proved to be Ulster's nemesis the last day, scoring two tries. So how do you curb his influence?
McFarland said: “There are a couple of things we can do to make sure we don’t get in a position where we isolate a single man on the edge like we did last time. Working as a team and being able to produce constant, collective pressure is probably the key to that. What can you do in terms of dealing with one-on-one? Probably not much.
“There’s a highlight reel of plenty of really, really good defenders and tacklers who have been made to look foolish by Cheslin Kolbe and I promise you that’s going to continue to grow.
“It is a totally different world coming into Europe, we are playing against a Toulouse team that is packed with size and experience up front and an unbelievable plethora of talent in the backs and we won’t know whether that lack of being tested over the last week is going to count against us.”
