Confident Ulster can still reel in Saracens in Champions Cup, reckons Franco van der Merwe

Ulster’s all-action South African lock Franco van der Merwe is in no doubt the province are ready to step up to the plate as they prepare for the second leg of their back-to-back Champions Cup clash with four-time winners Toulouse.

There are not too many teams that go to Toulouse and emerge unscathed. Ulster have been there a few times, including in their successful 1999 campaign, and never come away with the points. Unbeaten this year at home, Toulouse will be smarting after last week’s 38-0 drubbing at Ravenhill.

But the former Golden Lions and Sharks star, who made one appearance for the Springboks, is in no doubt that after the win last week, anything is possible, even though Saracens are runaway favourites to win Pool 1.

“There’s been a great vibe around at the moment, a real enthusiasm and passion in training and on the pitch,” said Van der Merwe. “Even before last week’s win, it was evident. I think you saw that, even in the last 20 minutes on Friday when the replacements came on and did a superb job, keeping the pressure on and playing right through to the whistle.

“It’s always difficult in France, we know they’ll bounce back, but we’ve looked at a lot of their games, we have prepared properly, as we did for last week, and we’re really confident.

Van der Merwe celebrates with StuartMcCloskey who scored a try against Toulouse

“We had a brilliant game on Friday, but that was only one game, Ulster needs to perform every week, in every game, and get results even when we’re not at our best. On Sunday, everyone needs to be on the same page, they’ll have the crowd behind them, they’re undefeated at home this year, so we have to be ready for a battle.

“It’s going to be tough to get through this group, but there have already been some surprises and some big scores in other groups, but we can only concentrate on this Sunday.

“We spend a lot of time prepping, and we learned a lot about their set-piece. But we are well-prepared, the patterns and the organisation have been done, so I think we’ll do well,” said the big lock, who is glad World Cup inquests have passed and everyone is now thinking about Ulster.

“Personally I’m glad it’s over. It meant the start of the season was so ‘stop-go’, players and coaches with Ireland, so to entirely focus on Ulster was difficult. That’s not a problem now, as a group that focus is sharp and it’s complete. This is quite a long sequence of games we’re going into and there’s an upside to that, in terms of consistent game time. But I personally liked it last year when we occasionally had a couple of weeks to rest and recover, and this season it’s even more important to manage players, rotate the squad and keep top players fresh for big games.

“With the senior side, the A side and the Academy boys here altogether, we have all bought into the vision that Director of Rugby Les Kiss has for Ulster now and in the future.

“It’s a great place to be.”