Anscombe: We need to be stronger

Ulster coach Mark Anscombe says that Ulster’s preparation for a new Heineken Cup season is progressive and admits there will be no easy games in the pool.

They go into action this weekend at home to English Premiership Champions Leicester Tigers in pool 5.

It has been a bumpy enough start to their season in the Rabo Direct Pro 12, only winning two out of five games so far, compared to last season when they had gone 12 games unbeaten.

Anscombe says they are in good enough shape having beaten the Ospreys at the weekend and unlike their first game in the Rabo, he says his team are fully capable of winning their first game.

“We have got to be able to believe in ourselves to be able to do that,” he said.

“We love playing at home, we have great supporters and they get behind the team and we have to use all that because we are playing a formidable team who have five or six Lions and they won the Aviva Premiership so it doesn’t get tougher than that.”

Last season, Ulster couldn’t shake off the ‘nearly’ tag having got to the final the previous year only to be beaten against Leinster and then knocked out against Saracens in last season’s quarter finals then to finally beaten against Leinster in the Pro 12 Grand Final, but the Ulster coach thinks his squad have learned a lot about themselves and learnt from their experiences.

“We achieved a lot last year even though we didn’t win silverware but we had our first wins in France, qualified first in our pool and got to the Rabo final so I think there is a lot to look at and think we did quite a bit,” he said.

“When things don’t go your own way there are two ways to go about it – you can feel sorry for yourself and blame refereeing or you can say what have we learned and how can we make ourselves better and I think we have taken the second approach.

“We need to be stronger and more disciplined about what we have to do, being able to dissect the team and to be able to play a game of rugby, if we do that we know we can challenge any teams in this competition.”

Elsewhere in their Pool they will come up against Montpellier who are still relatively new to the competition despite playing 13 games between 2011 and last season.

In those 13 games they were winners in 6 of them but Anscombe knows they will have it tough against the side second in the French Top 14.

“You just got to have a look as some of the players they have there and some of their performances,” he said.

“They are formidable but none of these games will be easy and hopefully we can keep a fit squad and grind the results.”

Italian side Treviso are the other side in Ulster’s pool and so far in the Pro 12 they have proven that they have stepped up with wins already against Munster and Connacht.

Over the years Munster and Leinster have enjoyed days in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in Heineken Cup finals.

The Welsh national stadium hosts the final again for what could be the very last Heineken Cup final with the future still up in the air. Anscombe reckons if it is the end, his players just like others around Europe will want to be there and write their names in the history books.

“We know that as a group if we can have a bit of luck and by luck I mean luck by keeping players fit, we can compete with anyone,” he said.

“It’s a long season and hard work will bring luck and we need to believe that we can be the best that we are and if we can keep to those little things we can be there.”