For three of the Irish provinces, this weekend is likely to dictate whether they play any role in this year's Champions Cup.
As you'd expect in Europe, there are three extremely tough fixtures. Munster travel to Sandy Park to take on an Exeter team riding high off a last play win in Toulon. Connacht have the unenviable task of heading to Premiership champions Saracens on the road. Ulster have the minor relief of playing their first home game in the competition but will have a star-studded Racing 92 to contend with.
Ulster v Racing 92
Ulster, in particular, now find themselves on a three-match skid ahead of a very tough run of fixtures. With Racing 92 this weekend followed by Connacht at home, Leinster in the RDS and then back in to Europe for Toulouse and a trip to the red hot London Harlequins. It feels like a sliding doors moment for this Ulster team. A win could banish any talk of their form over the last month.
It is a European debut for Ulster's brand new 3G pitch, which is believed to have been brought in largely after the disaster of having their marquee fixture against La Rochelle moved behind closed doors last season. This particular mid-December home fixture in the Champions Cup has traditionally been one where Ulster thrive, particularly against the French. With two victories over Clermont and of course that famous win, "in front of the boys of '99", as described by Nick Mullens on commentary, against Racing in the 2018/19 tournament will be of particular comfort to Ulster fans going in to this week.
The fans at the Kingspan Stadium will believe there's a genuine opportunity to turn the season around this week and you've to imagine the players are thinking the same. This week Balls.ie spoke to Stephen Ferris to get his understanding of where Ulster lost the game against Bath and in turn, which areas they will be looking to tighten up in order to try get their first points of this year's European campaign.
Thoughts of Stephen Ferris
The former Ulster and Ireland blindside described something of a 'low ebb' amongst Ulster fans this season and where the expectations of those at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday night will be;
There maybe hasn't been the same amount of fans going to the games, the same atmospheres and it has felt a little bit flat. Why? It's because the rugby isn't up to standard. The rugby isn't up to what fans expect. The fans will expect Ulster to beat Racing at 8pm on Saturday night.
They will expect that and Racing will have a different mindset. They're gonna want to walk away from Belfast with all five points if possible but to get the victory and the result is the biggest thing.
He also made mention of Racing's form and Ulster's incredibly tough run of games between now and the start of February, particularly in Europe;
They left (their previous game vs Harlequins), even after a loss with two points scoring four tries and getting that losing bonus point. A win away in Belfast, if it is that four pointer, that tees them up really, really well.
Ulster have still got a few tough fixtures to come having to go away to Harlequins and then Toulouse at home, that's pretty difficult. I expect a reaction from Ulster on Saturday whether we get it or not is a different thing. I've felt that we've needed a reaction a number of times this season and we haven't got it.
Ferris outlined the biggest weakness and issue from Saturday's 37-14 mauling at the Rec. The set piece. In particular, the scrum and the plethora of issues Ulster had dealing with Beno Obano and Tom Dunn on the loosehead side;
The scrum is under huge pressure. Anyone I speak to who's asking, 'why aren't Ulster performing? What's going on with this new attack? They've got this plastic pitch why are they not getting their big game players going?
'We've hardly seen Balacoune and Stockdale's been anonymous in Europe.' Well, I'll tell you what's going on, if you can't work anything off a set piece and you're giving away multiple penalties at scrum time and in your maul defence, it's gonna put you under huge, huge pressure.
He showed that despite the fact Ulster had kept it close at the Rec for long stretches of the game, they never had an opportunity of winning it;
Like Ulster going in to that last 25 minutes at Bath, I know it was close, but I don't think Ulster entered their 22, or if they did it was for a brief period. Just because of the amount of penalties they were conceding. You can have all the physicality you want, you can make line breaks and get in to the opposition 22 but if you knock the ball on and it comes to another scrum and you give away another penalty, it's not good.
Ferris expressed his reservations about Ulster's newest international and marquee signing, Stephen Kitshoff;
The signing of Stephen Kitshoff has maybe added more pressure to the situation at Ulster because he was the marquee guy. He was the guy that was gonna come in and nail that down. Go back through all of South Africa's World Cup games where he started. Yes, of course, they had the upper hand on a few teams but it wasn't him winning penalties.
It was Ox Nche who was coming on and being the guy who was a powerhouse and dominating the opposition tighthead. It is a huge area of concern and especially one they've gotten sort out against a big pack in Racing 92.
We'll know a lot more about Ulster by the end of this weekend.
