DOAK AIMS TO HAVE GLASGOW SEEING STARS

ULSTER head coach Neil Doak turned up the heat on Glasgow by insisting the return of his world-class stars should prove enough to take them to victory in Friday’s Pro12 semi-final at Scotstoun. Doak admitted he had taken a conscious decision not to start the likes of Rory Best, Tommy Bowe, Paddy Jackson, Iain Henderson and South African Ruan Pienaar in Saturday’s 32-10 defeat at the same venue. He made the call because some were carrying knocks but mainly because he knew that, even if they won, his side had little chance of securing a home semi-final and it made better sense to rest his big names. That opened the door for Glasgow Warriors to beat a second-string side made up of 12 players who were not regular starters. For the quickfire re-match, a much-changed Ulster side will return to Glasgow, with Doak (below) making it clear that, injuries aside, he will bring the heavy artillery of Best, Pienaar and Bowe back into his starting line-up. ‘I had a conscious thought process on selection because a lot of other results would have had to go our way to give us a home semi,’ he said. ‘In saying that, even if we wanted to go with a full-strength side we wouldn’t have been able to do so as we also had injuries. ‘When we head to Glasgow this weekend, the personnel will be different but the attitude to win will be the same.’ Doak denied his decision to field a weakened team would have affected team morale going into the play-off semifinal and felt his side could make history by becoming the first away team to win one. ‘Glasgow only got a big lead from their efforts in the back end on Saturday and we maybe dropped off tackles,’ said the 42-year-old former Ulster player. ‘But we can go across to Scotstoun and beat them this weekend. ‘We have to do the basics well and make sure they don’t get an early lead as we don’t want to chase the game against a team like Glasgow.’ Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend said he could understand Doak’s approach in naming a weakened team and has warned his players to expect a real backlash from a full strength-Ulster outfit. ‘I can understand why he did it as he knew, I suppose, there was only an outside chance of his team getting a home semi-final,’ said Townsend. ‘They played Munster and then us ahead of the semi-final this Friday, so if I was in their position I would have done the same. ‘What did surprise us was that their bench was fully loaded. They had that fallback with all their world-class stars to come on if results elsewhere were going their way. ‘As things turned out, the results weren’t, so it meant guys like Rory Best never got off the bench. ‘They will be much different in terms of selection when they come back to us on Friday. Anybody who is more than 80-per-cent fit will be playing and I am sure they will have their strongest team out against us.’