Belief key to ending Ulster away hoodoo

ANOTHER week, another game where Ulster’s season is on the line. Last Saturday, Dan McFarland’s men had to see off Racing 92 to keep their encouraging revival project going and they delivered.

Ulster showed tremendous resolve to hold off 2018’s beaten finalists and add to their list of memorable European Cup wins over heavyweight French opposition.

But that was in Ravenhill, where Ulster receive their customary fuel injection from familiar surroundings and the urgings of their vociferous home supporters.

Today is a different challenge entirely — seeing off Leicester in the bear-pit that is Welford Road.

Or, at least that is what the ground used to be. This season it has staged several teddy bear’s picnics with demoralising home losses to Worcester, Sale and Saracens in the English Premiership as well as a Champions Cup pasting by Racing 92.

The Tigers are out of the running in Pool 4 whereas Ulster are chasing a rare appearance in the knockout stages — their last coming in 2013-14 when they also won in Welford Road.

Geordan Murphy is having a tough time of it as the new coach and knows he needs to oversee a big performance to satisfy supporters, putting more store in their recent dominant home display against Gloucester than last weekend’s European no-show away to Scarlets with a weakened side.

Consequently, Murphy has named a strong side, including the six players named in England’s Six Nations squad this week — Ellis Genge, Dan Cole, Ben Youngs, George Ford, Jonny May and Manu Tuilagi — and there was just a hint of desperation when he said Leicester were ‘looking forward to getting back out in front of our home crowd’.

It may be a classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for’. If Tigers struggle to match their visitors this afternoon, that exacting home crowd will not be slow in voicing their ire.

But, boil it down, and result of this game comes back to whether Ulster have the attitude and intensity to claim the victory they need for qualification.

Too often, the province has gone into away fixtures on a high following big Ravenhill performances and then flopped spectacularly — a mental frailty that has been the defining characteristic of their 12-year wait for a trophy.

Some reckon this weakness on the road is part of the Ulster DNA but that argument falls flat when you look at the starting lineup today and see only five players — Robert Baloucoune, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Iain Henderson and captain Rory Best — who came up through the province.

Henderson’s return after injury — the only alteration to the side that ran out against Racing — is highly significant, and timely for Ireland given their impending Six Nations assignments.

The second row needs to lead by example today when the Tigers attempt to muscle up. While there is no doubting Henderson’s ability, he does have the tendency to go missing on occasion. This is a microcosm of Ulster’s wider problem.

But Leicester have their own problems, and when you measure their match squad against Ulster’s, with the exception of the England contingent, there are not a lot of names to be intimidated by.

The Tigers bench, in particular, lacks snarl while Ulster can source the impact of Rob Herring, John Cooney and Michael Lowry from theirs.

If the visitors can dominate up front, and they have the tools to do so if Henderson hits his straps alongside the in-form backrow of Sean Reidy, Jordi Murphy and Marcell Coetzee, they have the backs to do damage.

Robert Baloucoune and, especially, Jacob Stockdale offer lethal finishing threats out wide, Stuart McCloskey’s strong running in midfield can set the tone and Will Addison has been offering creativity at 13 all season.

But it all comes back to the mental issue. Do Ulster have the belief to go and turn over one of the great European clubs in front of their own fans?

They better have because, if that inner surety is lacking today, their season could fall away very quickly.