Ulster head off for 10-day South African tour

Ulster head for South Africa today for a ten-day stay during which the Guinness PRO14 tests against the Southern Kings and the Cheetahs could further the province’s challenge in Conference B.

Ulster head off for 10-day South African tour

By Rod Nawn

Ulster head for South Africa today for a ten-day stay during which the Guinness PRO14 tests against the Southern Kings and the Cheetahs could further the province’s challenge in Conference B.

Head coach Dan McFarland has apparently taken to his role with a combination of relish and remarkable calm, especially having seen his side produce two successive last-minute wins against the Scarlets and Edinburgh at Kingspan Stadium.

He travels for Sunday’s first match with the Kings without several big names, notably flankers Jordi Murphy and Chris Henry, while Rory Best, Jacob Stockdale and Marty Moore are amongst a clutch of familiar injured absentees.

But Jean Deysel is available again and could renew a potentially barnstorming partnership with the fully-restored Marcell Coetzee.

We’re bringing 30 players for the two games, and we’re confident that we have a high-calibre squad prepared for two South African sides improving all the time,” said McFarland.

“Or first focus is on the Kings, and we know already that they have pace in every area of the team, and that there’s a physicality we have to match. Last year the game was loose and suited them, we have learned from that and I know that we have the fitness levels to cope – and the players to take advantage and keep our little ‘run’ going.”

He’s seen the boot of scrum-half John Cooney clinch two important wins in a week, and McFarland expects kicking to be an important part of his team’s strategy on Sunday.

It’s not just John, who’s been superb, but there are others who we’ll ask to get us position and to exert pressure on the Kings.

McFarland explained that he finds himself taking a broader view of situations on the pitch during training and in matches.

“As a forwards coach I had a specific brief, ‘feeding’ into the head coach’s decision-making, and now I have to look at the bigger picture, measuring the momentum and the flow of each contest. Obviously I have a plan each matchday, but the situation in a game might change and that is one of the reasons, perhaps, I haven’t over-used our replacements.

“If key guys are doing an important job and we need them out there that’s what we do, we adapt when we have to, not for its own sake,” said the amiable Englishman who’s officially been at the helm for just three weeks after the protracted impasse with the Scottish Rugby Union over his release from Scotland duties.

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