"Going into the last week of European competition, not knowing what's going to happen, but with a chance of reaching the last eight, does make it exciting, and you want to be involved in situations like that," says Neil Doak, ahead of Saturday's must-win game against Oyonnax at Kingspan Stadium (kick-off 1pm).
The Ulster Head Coach has backed his team to feed off the excitement of needing five points to secure qualification to the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
“Everyone knows we need five points, a win and a bonus, and it could even come down to points difference to decide if we can get into the quarter-finals. We always knew it would come down to this game; we’ve got to make sure we do our job and hope a few other results go or way,” he says.
The five pool winners will automatically qualify for the knock-out stage, and they will be joined by the three best runners-up. At the moment Ulster is acutely aware that a return of five points against Oyonnax would mean it finishes the campaign with 18 points.
Then it’s a waiting game to see how others vying for a quarter-final spot fare in their final pool games.
Doak wants to concentrate on the future, and immediately on the visit of the French side on Saturday, but he admits that his side’s hopes of qualification would be a little easier if some bonuses had been picked up in earlier pool games.
“Look, it’s academic, but if we hadn’t had a try disallowed in Toulouse, and if things had gone the way we had hoped against Oyonnax in France, then we’d be feeling a little more comfortable. It would be even more interesting.
“But in simple terms, we want the way we played in the second half when we came back to win in Oyonnax to be the template for the way we approach, and play, this weekend.”
And Doak insists that the visitors are going to pose real problems, that the club might be new to Top 14 rugby in France but it did well in its debut season to reach the Champions Cup. And beating Stade Francais and Toulouse this year, demonstrated it had to be taken very seriously.
“They’re a decent side, and they have broken-field runners who can do real damage. They beat Toulouse last week, and there are some lessons we, as coaches and players, can learn from.
“Toulouse decided to throw the ball around, got into good positions then from some frivolous play with ball-in-hand in the Oyonnxx ‘22’, gave away an intercept try. All that good play negated. And that’s why we have to build our game on doing the basic things well, and then hopefully the scores will flow from that,” says Doak.
He reports that injuries to Wiehahn Herbst, Louis Ludik and Chris Henry will be monitored carefully, but he was confident Nick Williams would be available for selection and that centre Darren Cave would be ‘in the mix’ again.
“We’re getting most people back, which is good of course, though some of them will be sneaking off to Ireland for the 6 Nations,” he laughed.
“But our focus is on Oyonnax at Kingspan Stadium this Saturday, and though we know we may have to wait 24 hours to know exactly what our situation in Europe will be, everybody is excited about the game, and determined to play as we know we can.
“What we have shown in the tournament is that this Ulster side is competitive, there are lots of things to work on, there always are, but with a big home crowd behind the guys it should be quite an occasion,” says the Head Coach.
Tickets for the game are still available - please visit www.ulsterrugby.com/buytickets.
The Ulster Head Coach has backed his team to feed off the excitement of needing five points to secure qualification to the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
“Everyone knows we need five points, a win and a bonus, and it could even come down to points difference to decide if we can get into the quarter-finals. We always knew it would come down to this game; we’ve got to make sure we do our job and hope a few other results go or way,” he says.
The five pool winners will automatically qualify for the knock-out stage, and they will be joined by the three best runners-up. At the moment Ulster is acutely aware that a return of five points against Oyonnax would mean it finishes the campaign with 18 points.
Then it’s a waiting game to see how others vying for a quarter-final spot fare in their final pool games.
Doak wants to concentrate on the future, and immediately on the visit of the French side on Saturday, but he admits that his side’s hopes of qualification would be a little easier if some bonuses had been picked up in earlier pool games.
“Look, it’s academic, but if we hadn’t had a try disallowed in Toulouse, and if things had gone the way we had hoped against Oyonnax in France, then we’d be feeling a little more comfortable. It would be even more interesting.
“But in simple terms, we want the way we played in the second half when we came back to win in Oyonnax to be the template for the way we approach, and play, this weekend.”
And Doak insists that the visitors are going to pose real problems, that the club might be new to Top 14 rugby in France but it did well in its debut season to reach the Champions Cup. And beating Stade Francais and Toulouse this year, demonstrated it had to be taken very seriously.
“They’re a decent side, and they have broken-field runners who can do real damage. They beat Toulouse last week, and there are some lessons we, as coaches and players, can learn from.
“Toulouse decided to throw the ball around, got into good positions then from some frivolous play with ball-in-hand in the Oyonnxx ‘22’, gave away an intercept try. All that good play negated. And that’s why we have to build our game on doing the basic things well, and then hopefully the scores will flow from that,” says Doak.
He reports that injuries to Wiehahn Herbst, Louis Ludik and Chris Henry will be monitored carefully, but he was confident Nick Williams would be available for selection and that centre Darren Cave would be ‘in the mix’ again.
“We’re getting most people back, which is good of course, though some of them will be sneaking off to Ireland for the 6 Nations,” he laughed.
“But our focus is on Oyonnax at Kingspan Stadium this Saturday, and though we know we may have to wait 24 hours to know exactly what our situation in Europe will be, everybody is excited about the game, and determined to play as we know we can.
“What we have shown in the tournament is that this Ulster side is competitive, there are lots of things to work on, there always are, but with a big home crowd behind the guys it should be quite an occasion,” says the Head Coach.
Tickets for the game are still available - please visit www.ulsterrugby.com/buytickets.