Our critics just don’t know what they are talking about..

MCCLOSKEY HITS BACK OVER IFFY ULSTER FORM

STUART MCCLOSKEY has labelled the small number of Ulster fans who’ve criticised the team for lacking heart as “completely inaccurate”.

A heavy inter-pro defeat at Connacht led to some outside pressure being applied on the players and coaching staff. Athough they responded with a big second half comeback against Munster on New Year’s Day, they are under pressure heading to the RDS for today’s Pro14 showdown with Leinster but Mccloskey has come out fighting.

“I think the majority of the fans are brilliant, you’ll get the odd guy who maybe doesn’t quite know what they’re talking about. “But people saying there’s no heart, no passion and we aren’t doing it for the badge? That’s completely inaccurate. Darren Cave (inset) did an interview where he summed it up perfectly – there’s no lack of heart and passion in this team.

“Maybe our skill level hasn’t been there but when we put it together you can see how good we can be.”

Ulster are six points adrift of second-placed Leinster and cannot afford to let the gap grow any bigger.

That means they’ll have to do something they’ve only done once in this millennium – win at the RDS.

However, Mccloskey believes they are not too far off clicking and turning an average season into a very good one.

He insisted: “We’ve only lost four out of 16 games whereas Leinster have lost three and they’re talked about as the best team in Europe.

“So we can’t be doing that badly. We’re not too far off but obviously there are things we’d like to be doing better.

“We didn’t do that in the first half against Munster but the second half was some of the best stuff we played all year.

“We might not have played brilliantly all year but there’s been a lot of heart and a lot of passion.

“We’ve come back from behind a few times – the draw with the Dragons, Scarlets at home, Munster – it shows the guys are trying hard. We just need to be more clinical.

“Leinster is a tough place to go but off the top of my head I can’t think of anyone who wins comfortably there.

“They’ve been the best team in the Pro14, Pro12 for the last seven, eight years but we’ll go down there and try to put our game-plan in place and see what happens.”

Mccloskey has stayed injuryfree this year and been a regular at inside centre, even if the faces in the No13 jersey outside him keep changing.

He added: “I don’t know how many it’s been from Luke Marshall, Louis Ludik, Tommy Bowe, Louis again and Cavey but it’s always like that with us in the centre.every year there always seems to be an injury crisis.

“We always come in with loads of centres and we always think, ‘How are we going to get a game?’. By the end of it there’s one of us left and a winger’s playing centre.

“I thought Cavey was brilliant against Munster. He came in at late notice, I think he was only told at about 1pm that Louis was sick but he was close to being man of the match.”