After digging deep to grind out a win against fellow BKT URC rivals Benetton last Saturday night, Ulster will aim to finish their on-field pre-season preparations on high when they travel to face English Premiership giants Exeter Chiefs on Saturday evening, kick-off at 5pm.
Going into the final quarter of last weekend’s open, a jaded Ulster looked to be heading towards defeat.
However, a fresh injection of youth from the bench steered the province to a morale-boosting 26-19 over the Italian outfit. This Saturday though represents a significant step up in opposition.
Ulster have also been drawn against Saturday’s opponents in this season’s Champions Cup, with Rob Baxter’s outfit visiting Belfast in January.
But Ulster assistant head coach Dan Soper thinks that the post-Christmas fixture won’t have a bearing on Saturday’s clash, believing instead that it provides nothing else than a perfect pre-season test.
“I don’t think it’s as much about it being Exeter this weekend as it is an opportunity to play against a team in a pre-season game and to see where we are at.”
“Take another step forward from what we did last week and the challenge of it being Exeter; we know they are a very good team. They have a lot of depth and I’m sure they’ll be going pretty strong this weekend in preparation for their league,” added the New Zealander.
“So, I don’t think there’s a huge relevance to what’s happening later in the year, but it will be a good test for us this weekend anyway.”
Reflecting on last weekend’s win over Benetton, Soper said that there were many positives to take from the victory.
Ulster have faced criticism in recent times for not utilising the armoury that they have out wide, often relying on their maul attack for tries. But lately, Ulster have been trying to deploy a faster game plan with the aim to get the ball out wide much quicker.
Saturday did show a keenness to get the ball moving. And while Ulster did manage to create plenty of chances, it was a case of poor decision-making that let them down in the red zone. But Soper believes that this is what Ulster have to work on if they are to be successful this season.
“I thought we created a lot of opportunities and we did that through a lot of the time being in the right position that we should be in, we probably just didn’t make the right decision on how to get the ball to space first time as quickly as we could.
“What we could see in review there was a lot of stuff we had been working on is being creating those opportunities, we just need to get better at taking them. So, that was a positive.”
Another positive to take from the game was how well the younger members of the squad adapted to senior rugby. This season more than ever Ulster’s rising stars will get their chance to impress and Soper was full of praise for those who took their opportunity on Saturday.
“The young guys that stepped up like James McNabney, we saw a bit of him last year, I thought he did really well. And the next tier under him, were sort of getting their first opportunity. Boys like Tom Brigg, Charlie Irvine and James McKillop. And these sorts of guys.
“It just shows that if we keep working hard and developing those guys, we’ll be able to create a good deal of depth amongst our squad that will be made up of a lot of local talent.”
