Oxygen, both the real thing and the metaphorical stuff, has been on Ulster minds between their United Rugby Championship outings in South Africa this week.
Richie Murphy’s squad left the altitude of Johannesburg, where they lost 35-22 to the Lions last weekend, for sea-level Cape Town to prepare for this Saturday’s clash with the Bulls back up on the Highveld in Pretoria. With such a short stay in South Africa for the URC double-header, assistant coach Jonny Bell says the benefits of remaining in the thinner air were outweighed by the familiarity of Cape Town, where Ulster have played in two of the past three seasons.
And while he acknowledged that the challenge of back-to-back weeks playing at lung-busting elevations is a big one, it didn’t sway the outcome of the Lions loss and won’t be the deciding factor against the Bulls either.
“It is tough and a barometer of that is that two years ago when we were out in Joburg playing the Lions Mikey Lowry – who is probably the fittest man on the planet – said it was the hardest game he’s every played,” said Bell.
“It’s hard for us when we sit back and watch to understand how difficult it is for the guys, the physical toll it takes, the lack of oxygen. But the guys understand that and we don’t use that as a crutch. We didn’t lose the game against the Lions because of that. We lost it because we made too many mistakes with and without the ball.
“We’re bitterly disappointed, it was a tough day having to review things. It was a game we wanted to win, we felt we could win. We probably gave ourselves an uphill battle after the first half; we didn’t really get going.
“A lot of turnovers, a lot of missed tackles just gave them that little bit of oxygen they needed, particularly at home.”
Ulster did at least manage to come away from Johannesburg with a bonus point for scoring four tries, three of them in a second half that showed a marked improvement on the first 40 minutes at Emirates Airlines Park, the branded moniker Ellis Park goes by these days.
They now face a trip to another cathedral of South African rugby, Loftus Versfeld, to face a Bulls side who opened their campaign with a win there against Edinburgh, surviving a harum-scarum final 10 minutes to hold on for a 22-16 victory. Ulster will have to do without Ireland international centre Stuart McCloskey, who will miss the match after sustaining injuries to his right ankle and knee against the Lions.
“The Bulls have probably a little bit more refinement to their shape,” said Bell when asked how different it will be facing last season’s runners-up.
“They’ve got big athletic forwards and incredibly fast backs and will bring a mixture of power and pace. The Lions, although they have big forwards, they tend to just want to get the ball very fast to their backs and they tend to be very dangerous off transition stuff. That was the problem – we just created too many opportunities around that and stressed ourselves out.
“I know they’re different but there are a lot of similarities. They’re going to be very powerful up front and it’s going to be a huge task. The boys are very excited about that challenge at Loftus, to be able to face up to some big ball carriers.
“They’re obviously a big set-piece team so we’re going to have to be on our mettle around that area of the game. Physically they challenge you and after they’ve provided that physical challenge they’ve got any number of players in the backs that like to get one-on-one in space and are dangerous. So, it’s no small challenge but it’s a great challenge at the same time.”
