Ulster going for Tigers ‘with all guns blazing’

ULSTER coach Brian McLaughlin wants a helping of the same intensity and physicality from his pack when they head to the Leicester Tigers liar at Welford Road on Saturday for the second instalment of their Heineken Cup campaign.

It was the barnstorming second half which lowered Clermont Auvergne colours last weekend following one of the best performances by an Ulster pack for a long time.

But McLaughlin said all that effort would be wasted if they did not match that effort again.

“Like Clermont, Leicester are a smashing team with a superb pedigree in Europe, and if you don’t front up, you will lose,” said McLaughlin, who has named the same provisional squad as last week minus star prop John Afoa, who is best man at fellow All Blacks star Jerome Kaino’s wedding.

“They may not have had the best of starts to the season, but that matters little when it comes to Europe. They will playing in front of their home fans and they will not want to disappoint them. In many ways, Welford Road is like Ravenhill. The fans really get behind their team and it is a very difficult place to come away with a victory.

“But we intend to go over there with all guns blazing, like we did against Bath last season and the season before. Nothing else will do to be honest,” said McLaughlin who has one or two players with little niggles, particularly Stephen Ferris who took another bang on his injured leg.

“We will miss John Afoa, that’s fairly obvious, but Declan Fitzpatrick has done very well over the past couple of seasons and we have every confidence in him to perform.

“We brought Declan and Paddy McAllister on last week against Clermont and they did exceptionally well under intense pressure. The set-pieces will be crucial on Saturday, and we will have to nail all our scrums and line-outs if our game plan is to succeed.”

ULSTER squad: Forwards: T Court, J Afoa, D Fitzpatrick, P McAllister, C Black, A Kyriacou, N Brady, R Best, S Ferris, A Macklin, J Muller, capt, T Barker, l Stevenson, D Tuohy, C Henry, R Diack, N McComb, M McComish, P Wannenberg, W Faloon. Backs: P Marshall, I Porter, I Humphreys, P Jackson, C Gilroy, S Danielli, P Wallace, I Whitten, N Spence, D Cave, A Trimble, A D’Arcy.