Forwards coach Jimmy Duffy says Sunday’s daunting Champions Cup appointment with French powerhouse Bordeaux is exactly where Ulster want to be.
Ulster’s reward for scraping into the final knockout berth of Europe’s premier club tournament is a trip to the Stade Chaban-Delmas to face the competition’s top seeds, who blasted through the pool stage with four bonus-point wins out of four.
One of those came at the Kingspan Stadium in December, where Yannick Bru’s side blew Ulster away in the final 20 minutes, turning a 19-14 deficit into a 40-19 win, with French stars Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey – who was yesterday named Six Nations player of the tournament – among those running in tries.
They’re massive favourites to repeat that result at the weekend against an Ulster side in a scramble to finish in the top eight of the United Rugby Championship and guarantee a place at Europe’s top table next season.
It’s occasions like Sunday, says Duffy, that epitomise why that’s so important to the province.
“It’s a brilliant stadium, a brilliant place, a massive club with a huge history and we all know the quality that’s over there.
“I believe they’ve got between 25 and 30 internationals in the squad and people who maybe aren’t internationals [yet] will be.
“They’re an exciting attacking team, a big forward pack, so it’s a massive challenge, but it’s European Cup rugby.
“As players, coaches, staff, fans, it’s where we want to be and we’re really looking forward to getting ourselves over there and showing up.”
While Ulster’s URC prospects have taken a major upturn the past month with wins over the Scarlets, Dragons and Stormers, and Bordeaux head into the match off the back of defeat to Racing 92 in the Top 14 at the weekend, bookmakers have the French side somewhere around 22-point favourites for Sunday.
The old cliche that ‘everybody’s writing us off’ could probably be truthfully be repeated around Ravenhill this week. And while Duffy agrees it’s the sort of thing that can be used for motivation, he reiterates that the challenge is something to be embraced.
“I think you probably try and find any angle you can as a player or a coach, and players and coaches are good at manufacturing scenarios that positively reflect on your group and your abilities,” he said.
“We see it as a real opportunity. They’re second in the French league at the moment, a brilliant team with brilliant players in a cool part of the world. It’s Champions Cup, it’s knock-out, it’s exactly where every rugby player or every rugby coach would want to be.
“Putting yourself against the best opposition, that’s where we want to be, so for us we view it as an opportunity.
“We respect them massively. They’ve earned that and they’ve shown why here to see us off in 20 minutes at the end of the game. But you get that with quality opposition. We’re really looking forward to it, really excited and can’t wait to get over.”
Ben Carson and Rob Baloucoune both came off injured during Friday’s 38-34 win over the Stormers with both awaiting the results of scans to assess back and hamstring injuries respectively.
Ulster will be particularly anxious regarding winger Baloucoune who, after almost a year out with hamstring and calf injuries, made an impressive try-scoring return against the South Africans.
Centre James Hume, who was a late withdrawal from the team on the day of the match due to illness, will be monitored throughout the week ahead of the team announcement on Friday.
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