Ulster won’t be letting the struggles of Friday night’s Champions Cup visitors Exeter “lead them astray”, according to forwards coach Jimmy Duffy.
While the home side have endured their own hard lessons this season – the most recent of which was Saturday’s 38-10 Champions Cup defeat to another English Premiership side, Leicester – the Chiefs head to the Kingspan Stadium in the midst of a wretched season.
They’ve won just once in the league – albeit recently, just before the new year against Gloucester – and sit below Ulster in their European pool, with three defeats out of three.
The latest was a 69-17 walloping at home to Bordeaux on Saturday so, with possible Champions Cup progression – although a spot in the Challenge Cup for the winners is infinitely more likely – up for grabs on Friday, the fixture appears to be a huge opportunity for Ulster.
But, as Duffy points out, it’s still against a club with the pedigree of winning a Champions Cup and English titles in the not-too-distant past and he insists Ulster will be ready for a huge challenge.
“Results sometimes can lead you astray, they’re still very experienced and they’ve got a lot of talent,” he said.
“They’re very physical up front and have got a very capable backline as well. We’re paying them the utmost respect as former champions and they know what they’re about, so we just have to be on our stuff.
“Their coaching team are very experienced and they’re together a long time, maybe eight, nine seasons.
“So they have a specific way they want to play the game and they have the resources to execute that.
“They are a really strong side, a big set-piece team and they hit you with a lot of line in speed.
“They’re clever, with a lot of international players in the set-up as well. They’re well drilled, they know what they’re doing and we’re very conscious of the challenge ahead of us.
“We’re going in against a very experienced side who have been close in games – they got a big win against Gloucester a couple of weeks ago.”
Duffy welcomed the news that Ireland internationals Rob Herring, Tom Stewart and Michael Lowry as along with Stewart Moore, are back from injury, as well as the contract extensions that will keep experienced front row pair Eric O’Sullivan and John Andrew at the province.
Looking back at the defeat in Leicester, when Ulster led 10-0 after 10 minutes but didn’t score again as they shipped 26 points in the second half, Duffy pointed to the snowballing effect individual errors can have in a match getting away from you. It will understandably be a focus heading into the Exeter showdown.
“One error at our level is probably a 40-metre loss in territory, and it’s a whole different ballgame once you of find yourself in the [defensive] 22,” he said.
“Then the swing kind of tends to go to the attacking side and you don’t actually have to do a whole lot to cough up some penalties in that zone.
“One error, maybe a drop ball or a missed pass or something like that can end up being a scrum or a penalty which ends up down in the 22 and it’s a very different ball game.
“So if we’re a bit more accurate what we need to be accurate around then we reduce those errors by three or four and that’s 120 meters that we don’t have to worry about.”
