McFarland is readytolet Ulster cut off the shackles

ATTACK will be the best form of defence when Ulster take on Scarlets tomorrow night in the Champions Cup (7.45pm kickoff ), according to the side’s head coach Dan McFarland.

McFarland (below) believes his men have been too passive in recent weeks and called on them to stamp their authority on the crunch clash.

“For us, attack is a good form of defence,” he said. “Over the last three weeks we’ve maybe gone into our shell a little bit. Against Treviso, Scarlets last time, there were reasons for that, some of it being our lack of discipline meaning we ended up with less possession than we should have done.

“But also in the fact that when we did have the ball we didn’t play with the ambition that we needed to.

“We have areas of our game that are strong. We need to be good at those and we feel if we are good at those then we’ll be able to impose ourselves on Scarlets.”

Ulster should have Iain Henderson and Will Addison back in their side but have only two fit locks after injuries to Alan O’Connor and Ian Nagle over the last week.

Meanwhile, Paddy Jackson will not be making a playing return to Irish soil this weekend.

The former Ulster out-half’s new side Perpignan are in Galway to face Connacht on Saturday but he has not made the trip.

Jackson, linked with a move to Lyon next season, has remained in France with the relegation threatened outfit bringing backup No.10s Enzo Selponi and Paul Marty in their travelling squad.