We played well but there’s still plenty to work on, insists Dan
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On his side’s prospects of making the quarters for a first time since 2014, McFarland (below) added: “If you go into the back to backs having won one and take both of them, then you put yourself in a good position.
“For anybody who is an Ulster fan or a rugby fan, Racing coming here is going to be an exciting prospect. All I know is we’ve got to win two games. I’ll be watching (Racing v Leicester) with interest. We’ve got to win our games. We need to win the group first. That’s possible now and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.
“I’m really satisfied with the result, obviously five points and 10 points from two games against the Scarlets is a situation which any team would be pleased with due to the quality of opposition.
“In terms of the performance there was lots in that that we’d be very happy with.
“We were a little bit disappointed going in at halftime (Ulster led 10-3) in the fact that we hadn’t pushed the game on so there was an intensity in our defence which wasn’t quite at the level we wanted it to be.
“We’d also turned over a couple of balls and lost them in contact, we spoke about that at halftime and we spoke about not giving them access in the second half and I felt that third quarter albeit for the exceptional intercept try we did that.”
Stockdale, who has now scored in each of the first four rounds of the Champions Cup, was subbed off shortly after scoring his try but McFarland said there were no injury concerns over the 22-year-old star. ULSTER: L Ludik; H Speight, W Addison, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, J Cooney; E O’Sullivan, R Best (c), M Moore; I Henderson, K Treadwell; S Reidy, J Murphy, M Coetzee.
Replacements: R Herring (for Best, 67), K McCall (for O’Sullivan, 65), T O’Toole (for Moore, 67), Matty Rea (for Treadwell, 76), N Timoney (for Coetzee, 67), D Shanahan, J McPhillips (for Burns, 67), D Cave (for Stockdale, 58)
SCARLETS: J McNicholl; T Prydie, Jo Davies, H Parkes, S Evans; R Patchell, G Davies; W Jones, K Owens (c), S Lee; J Ball, D Bulbring; L Rawlins, W Boyde, U Cassiem. Replacements: R Elias (for Owens, 53), P Price (for W Jones, 67), W Kruger (for Lee, 59), T Price (for Ball, 76), J Helps (for Rawlins, 76), S Hidalgo-Clyne, D Jones (for McNicholl, 52), P Asquith (for Jon Davies, 59)
Referee: L Pearce (ENG)
Man of the match: Billy Burns.
SINCE the Heineken Cup was redrafted and redrawn following the 2013-14 season, only once has a team amassed 18 point from the pool stages and not made the quarter-finals as one of the three best runners-up.
That the side in question was Ulster themselves will no doubt aid in ensuring nobody at Kingspan gets too carried away but after last night’s efficient bonus-point win over a now eliminated Scarlets there is an inescapable feeling that the northern province sit one win away from what would be a sizeable achievement.
The five points banked thanks to tries from Jacob Stockdale, John Cooney and a brace from Iain Henderson has Dan McFarland’s sat on 14 points from four games in Pool 4, the last eight days putting them in a position where a first quarter final since 2014 has gone from a bonus to an expectation.
Few expected the full haul out in Parc y Scarlets last weekend but, having taken care of business so impressively as underdogs, they ensured there was to be no stumble when installed as favourites.
There was one small passage of worry, when an intercept score tied things up at 10-10 midway through the second-half but the side’s calm response ensured not just that they regained the upper-hand quickly, but also set up the chase for the bonus point score, capably provided by an on cue Cooney with 13 minutes remaining.
Playing into the wind to begin with, the gusts played havoc with a few of Scarlets’ scrum-half Gareth Davies’ early box kicks and it was one such effort that blew back towards the scrum-half that give Ulster the territory to score the game’s first points. As Jake Ball went off his feet, Cooney had no problem going for the posts with the wind at his back to give his side a three-point advantage.
As the game entered its second quarter, Ulster will have been pleased with where the game was being played – they had an early 55-45 advantage in territory – but given the prevalence of the wind will have had a nagging concern that it had not yielded a bigger advantage.
Once again they looked to their maul. A potent weapon of late having been seldom seen early in the year, it was a lengthy rumble from Rory Best’s pack that advanced them within metres of the Scarlets line. The visitors tightened up in the shadow of their own posts but the pressure eventually told, both in the yellow card shown to prop Wyn Jones and an eventual try for Iain Henderson.
For a team with little to play for, Scarlets were making Ulster work hard for every inch from the numerous pick and goes but it was Henderson who applied the desperately sought after finish.
As Wyn Jones and Lewis Rawlins, sacrificed for a prop come scrum time, returned at the end of the sin-binning period, Scarlets opened their account from a Rhys Patchell penalty after Marty Moore was pinged at the breakdown.
At 10-3, things were finely poised at the turn.
Then came the potentially monumental swing. Strong