While Richie Murphy remains upbeat that Ulster can turn their faltering season around, he has admitted that making the URC’s top eight could become extremely challenging unless they beat the Scarlets on Saturday.
Ulster currently sit a lowly 14th in the URC table with seven rounds to go before the knock-outs and have just won four League games all season, their last victory in the competition being December’s visit to Connacht.
Murphy’s cause has certainly not been helped by an extensive injury list ahead of the eighth-placed Welsh region’s visit this weekend with locks Cormac Izuchukwu (ankle) and Iain Henderson (hamstring) both out along with loosehead props Andrew Warwick (ankle), Eric O’Sullivan (knee) and hooker Tom Stewart (hamstring).
The situation at prop has meant there has been a short-term loan deal done with Saracens for Irish-qualified loosehead Sam Crean who has now joined up with the squad as they prepare to take on the Scarlets who are coached by Dwayne Peel and Jared Payne who both spent time at Ulster.
Just to further complicate matters, John Cooney (calf), Michael Lowry (concussion) and Jake Flannery (hamstring) are all doubts for this must-win match against the west Wales region.
With Ulster having been beaten back-to-back by Italian sides Zebre and Benetton in their most recent league outings — the latter where they shipped three yellow cards — the sense of alarm is growing and has hardly been alleviated by the province’s current injury list.
On a more positive note, some combination of Rob Herring, Stuart McCloskey, Nick Timoney and Jacob Stockdale are believed to have been released from Ireland while Nathan Doak, Tom O’Toole and Jude Postlethwaite all came through Sunday’s Ireland ‘A’ defeat to their England counterparts and are also available to Murphy.
Winger Werner Kok could also make this weekend after a spell out as could prop Callum Reid.
“If we don’t win this weekend, the top eight is difficult,” admitted Murphy.
“We’re still in a situation where it is in our own hands.
“We definitely haven’t got the results, all we can do is prepare the team to go out and put in a performance and we’ve got to concentrate on the performance because if we just think about the win, if we just go out with that mentality then all the other little bits will fall apart and won’t happen.
“We’ve been under pressure for probably most of the year really so going into the Scarlets with Jared (Payne) and ‘Peely’ (Dwayne Peel) coming back, they’ll want to make this as difficult for us as possible and they’ll probably smell blood in relation to seeing our injury list and knowing where we are in the League.
“So, we’ve got a lot to play for this week and it’s really important we focus in on getting the basics right, improving our discipline and ensuring we’ve a set piece to play off and players are sticking to the systems.”
Regarding the considerable challenges he is facing in this his first full campaign in charge at Ulster, Murphy added: “I’ve a strong coaching team around me and loads of support.
“It’s difficult, most definitely, and we haven’t got the results we have wanted, or probably expected, so I have to take that on the chin and I’m making sure we’re not missing things that we should do.
“But if we’re calm and we concentrate on the things which make us good, which are going back to the basics, then we can turn this corner,” he insisted.