McFarland finds meaning in Ulster’s dead rubber tie

Standards are standards, and regardless of what’s at stake Dan McFarland is still demanding a performance from his scratch side in this evening’s PRO14 dead rubber against Leinster.

With their places in the knockout stages already assured, both teams have taken the opportunity to rest their key men and field second, or maybe in Leinster’s case a third-string side, for this final Conference B game at Kingspan Stadium.

Both teams have made 15 changes to their starting teams, but Ulster head coach Dan McFarland insists there’s no such thing as a meaningless game when it comes to inter-pros — especially when he has yet to experience any sort of win over Leinster since joining the club.

“I would characterise it as an inter-pro in which we have 23 players and a coaching staff and a support staff all of whom will be involved in that, we will have a full Kingspan, all of whom will be involved in that.

“It is an occasion in itself. It may not have the meaning where you need points to get to a certain position in the league, but it certainly has meaning in itself.”

Ulster had a good win over Edinburgh last time out, two weeks ago, to set-up next week’s PRO14 quarter-final against Connacht in Belfast.

Leinster are coming off the back of an excellent Champions Cup semi-final against Toulouse, and McFarland can only marvel at their strength in depth with replacement Ryan Baird likely to become the 57th player to see game time for the boys in blue this season.

“That’s what (Leinster) do all the time, that’s how they run their squad,” McFarland said.

“We’re not there yet, but we want to get there. Utilising your whole squad throughout the year.

“We’ve used 47 players in the PRO14 this year, that will probably go up over 50 this weekend. Clearly, you need that.

Our senior squad isn’t that big so you have to dig in, to the Academy, to the development players. You need that throughout the season.

“I think for guys like Marcus Rea (who should make his senior debut from the bench), this is going to be the biggest day of his rugby career. Everybody has to treat it as such.

“Marcus was not playing in the quarter final, so this will be his day, and everyone has to respect that.”

Ulster-bound British and Irish Lion Jack McGrath, who will become the latest Leinster player to move up the M1 to Belfast in the summer, starts for Leo Cullen’s side.