Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PRO 14 RACING OUT OF BLOCKS
Alan: We’ll bounce back from hammering
ALAN O’CONNOR predicts Ulster will come out all guns blazing at the Kingspan to keep their European dream alive after their RDS drubbing. A shadow side put out by Dan Mcfarland fell by six tries to one to a mostly youthful Leinster line up on Saturday. But Dubliner O’connor, back in the side after five weeks absent through injury, believes Ulster will channel their hurt against Racing 92 when Simon Zebo and co arrive in Belfast on Saturday. The French side aiming to increase their five point lead over Ulster at the top of Pool 4, having already won on home soil when the sides met in Paris in October.
“We were really good for the first half hour, then a bit of magic from Zebo and Finn Russell going back and forward to each other and the game got away from us,” said O’connor.
“We did a lot of good – and we’re looking forward to bringing a lot of good next weekend.”
Ulster picked up back to back bonus point wins over Scarlets last month and remain in the qualification mix.
“It’s in our hands,” said the second row. “Racing are a good team but we’d back ourselves against any team at Kingspan.
“We’re looking forward to a lot of guys coming back as well. We’ll relish it.”
Ulster will take confidence from their home defeat of fancied La Rochelle 12 months ago, although they’ve now lost two on the bounce – against Connacht and Leinster – after four straight wins previous to that.
“The French teams don’t have a great record at Kingspan,” added O’connor.
“So we’re looking forward to turning up all guns blazing and ready to right the wrong that happened on Saturday night.
“Hopefully we’ll get the ball rolling again and right a few wrongs. You don’t enter a competition not to get through to the next round.
“And that’s our aim – to reach the quarter-finals. Whether that be Europe or the PRO14, that’s what we’re always aspiring to and hopefully we can do that now.”
Jacob Stockdale is fit and available and Mcfarland will be hoping that Michael Lowry can be involved after the full-back didn’t return from a HIA against Leinster.
Mcfarland defended his selection policy in Dublin and the league in general as Leinster racked up another big PRO14 win.
“We’ve got very competitive teams who play some lovely rugby in this league, people want to come and watch it,” he said.
“A team like Leinster would sit in any league and cause a lot of problems.
“I actually like, and I think a lot of people would have liked, the fact they came out and saw young players from Ireland playing.
“It’s quite exciting to get to see this new blood, putting together some lovely rugby as well.
“We play one of the best teams in Europe next week. It’ll be a great occasion and everything will be determined next week on how we go.”