McCall lays down the law to Ulster players
Following two disappointing pre-season defeats, McCall is looking for a win, despite the fact that 12 possible first-choice players will be absent for one reason or another.
This is McCall’s first real competitive test since he took over from Alan Solomons and he has already laid down the law to the players.
“I was very dissatisfied with our performance last Saturday against Dragons, and they know it now,” he said. “I suppose I can give the players a number of excuses for that.
“We had the camp at two venues around the province and that was very demanding physically and we did a lot of travel as well. You would never prepare in that way for a Celtic League game. We sat in the changing room on Saturday and we knew that the real hard stuff had not started yet. It wasn’t the ideal way to go into the Celtic League in many ways.
“It is not ideal with all the injuries we’ve got, but I still think it is a competitive side we are putting out and we have prepared well all week,” he added.
Edinburgh, on the other hand, are able to stack their side with returning internationals with Scott Murray, Chris Paterson, Simon Cross, Mike Blair, Allister Hogg and Derrick Lee all available.
There can be no doubt that Ulster are up against it, and have only outside chance of repeating the Celtic Cup victory over the same opponents at the same venue last December.
: D Lee, C Joiner, M Di Rollo, M Dey, H Southwell, C Paterson, M Blair, A Jacobsen, D Hall, J Brannigan, A Kellock, S Murray, T Blackadder (captain), A Hogg, S Cross. Replacements: A Kelly, C Smith, F Pringle, D Callam, R Lawson, P Godman, M Pyke.
: Cunningham; Bowe; Steinmetz, Bell, Maxwell; Wallace, Doak, McCormack, Shields, Moore, Mustchin, Frost, N Best, Ward (capt), Feather. Replacements: Young, Brady, Longwell, Brown, Campbell, Mallon, Young.
: Nigel Owens (Wales).
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