DAN TURNS HIS FOCUS BACK TO PRO14
Daire Walsh
FOLLOWING back-to-back Champions Cup victories, Ulster head coach Dan McFarland has called on his players to re-focus ahead of their return to the Guinness PRO14.
Courtesy of triumphs at the expense of Bath and Clermont, the side are flying high at the summit of their European pool. However, they trail Conference A leaders Leinster by nine points on the domestic front and welcome the ever-threatening Scarlets to Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.
“Obviously, the spotlight is on big European games and the Champions Cup in particular,” McFarland explained at a Kingspan coaching masterclass held in the province’s home ground.
“We understand that Scarlets will come here full of vigour, playing a nice brand of rugby, having played Challenge Cup rugby for the last two weeks, which is not as much in the spotlight as the Champions Cup.
“For them it’s a mental freshen up and they’ll target this as a huge game.”
Because it precedes consecutive fixtures against English Premiership outfit Harlequins, there was talk that McFarland might dip into his reserve options.
Scarlets may well be forced to field an experimental line-up themselves as a consequence of Wales’ encounter with the Barbarians in Cardiff on Saturday.
Nevertheless, the former prop acknowledged he is unlikely to make wholesale changes to his in-form side.
“We don’t have to rotate, we might change a few players around but this is a really important game for us.”