Terblanche targets more progress in Murrayfield

FORMER Springbok Stefan Terblanche will start at full-back for Ulster’s in Edinburgh tonight.

Short-term signing Terblanche, now 36, had been criticised for merely enhancing his pension, but made a try-scoring start on his debut against Munster last week and impressed coach Brian McLaughlin.

Adam D’Arcy is again the one to suffer as McLaughlin makes five changes. Stephen Ferris, Rory Best, Tom Court, and Andrew Trimble are all back on the starting grip with a fit-gain Paddy Wallace named on the bench.

For Terblanche, however, he believes starting the game is a big bonus.

“For a start it is easier to start,” said the former South Africa star. “If you come off the bench into a game you’ve got no time to settle in, particularly if you are going for a bonus try.

“But at the start it was good to get an introduction from the bench. I was getting a half-hour here and 20 minutes there just to settle in and get a bit of game time. But when you start a game things just naturally progress and that helps. That will be the case tonight. We would have gained some confidence out of that Munster win and we will go to Edinburgh not worrying about what they will bring to the game. It’s all about what we have to do and play to our potential.”

Edinburgh’s Irish coach Michael Bradley says Ulster will be quite a force to reckon with and the former Connacht boss has labelled tonight a must-win game.

“Like us, Ulster have so far enjoyed a successful Heineken Cup campaign but have not been as convincing in the RaboDirect Pro12, though they clearly took a big step towards addressing that last weekend against Munster,” he said.

“We have shown good form in front of our home support, winning six of our last seven at Murrayfield, however, Ulster have lost just one in their last five so will arrive with a lot of confidence, something which we will need to tackle early on.”

Bradley makes 12 changes to his side from that which lost to Glasgow last week with all his international players back in harness.

EDINBURGH: C Paterson, T Brown, N De Luca, J King, T Visser, P Godman, G Laidlaw (capt); A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S Cox, E Lozada, S McInally. R Grant, N Talei.

Replacements: A Walker, K Traynor, J Gilding, G Gilchrist. A MacDonald, C Leck, M Scott, J Thompson.

ULSTER: S Terblanche, A Trimble, D Cave, I Whitten, C Gilroy, I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller, D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg.

Replacements: A Kyriacou, C Black, A Macklin, L Stevenson, W Faloon, P Marshall, P Wallace, A D’Arcy.

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU).