Anscombe plans a ‘nice surprise’ for Saracens

Ulster coach Mark Anscombe is convinced the full house at the refurbished Ravenhill will have a key role to play in Saturday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Saracens.

Workmen are this week scurrying around applying the final touches ahead of the official opening of the multi million pound redevelopment which has increased the stadium capacity to 18,000.

Anscombe admitted: “The crowd here always is a big factor and the boys really enjoying playing here. It’s exciting for them knowing it is going to be packed. If that doesn’t get you excited for a game nothing will.”

The visitors are flying high domestically in recent times but the Ulster boss is promising “a nice surprises for them when they arrive here on Saturday. But they are a very confident team at present.

“No matter where they go to play rugby they back themselves to win and will not be coming here second guessing to get the result they want. What we have to do is to meet that confidence with belief in ourselves in how good we are. We’re on our home turf, we worked our asses off to get a home quarter-final — a goal we had set out last July during pre-season training. We have achieved that goal and we are certainly not going to let that go quietly.”

Asked what type of game he would like Ulster to play, he was in no doubt. “A winning game! You can’t just say one of the other whether a tight game or a running game. You got to be adaptable, have different game plans and know when to make the decisions to change. You can run the opposition around the park or just grind it through an arm wrestle.”

Saracens are stacked full of talents but Anscombe admits a few key men are central to their success. “Their half-backs are dangerous whether it is Richard Wigglesworth or Neil de Kock linking up with Owen Farrell. Those players put their big pack in the right areas of the field. They are very astute. But they have a big pack but I think we can most certainly match their ferocity up front. We have a lot of experience in our team and got big boys who have played big games against big teams. You look at the players who have returned to us after winning the Six Nations and the players like Johann Muller and John Afoa, World Cup winners. They have hit a certain level and they know what they have to do to reach it again.”

Ulster, top seeds going into the knock-out stages, lost their way at Twickenham last season at the same stage. But the Heineken Cup record books appear to be against them however. No team that achieved a 100% record in the pool stages, has gone on to win the competition. While Saracens ended up as eighth seed and second best pool runner-up with 20 points, they still managed to score 29 tries compared to Ulster’s 17, although the home side only conceded four in the pool stages. Saracens were top points scorers with 217.