Declan Bogue

LAST SATURDAY NIGHT was one of those games at Kingspan Ravenhill where the crowd seemed in perfect unison with the team.

There has been the odd whisper about Ulster failing to sell out big home games this season; perhaps harsh in a period of economic hardship as the local politicians continue to embarrass themselves.

But certainly those who were there enjoyed an inventive and clever home team performance.

And when Jacob Stockdale is crunching into tackles as he did against the exposed Henry Arundell, then they know their appetite is all there.

Connacht travel with trepidation for this URC fixture [KO 7.35pm, TG4 and BBCNI]. By now, their all-new coaching ticket has had time to bed in but they are showered with doubts.

Perhaps it’s the rate of change. With Pete Wilkins now in as head coach, he will look favourably on the work of attacking coach Mark Sexton and their ability to get over the try line.

Where it falls down is in defence; it’s shot through like a sieve and this falls down on Scott Fardy as his direct responsibility.

A quick run through the results shows three bright opening wins in succession against Ospreys, Glasgow and a second-half push to beat Ulster in the Sportsgrounds.

A loss to Edinburgh appeared to be corrected with a one-point win on the road in Durban against the Sharks. Since then it’s been a tumble downhill with four straight defeats.

Bulls caught them for 53 points. Bordeaux for 41 and Saracens last weekend for a whopping 55.

The Bulls game? Explained away by altitude and baking heat. They got a pass there.

Wilkins railed against the notion of the Bordeaux defeat being ‘embarrassing,’ but it’s difficult to find a better description of their defensive output in that game and against Sarries.

96 points in two consecutive games is the stuff that focusses minds and the defence will be under the microscope.

“Saracens scored too many points, that goes without saying, but too many of those we probably gifted to them with some easy errors that gave them either access to the ‘22 or gave them clear scoring opportunities,” said Wilkins after that game.

“But we stayed in there, and we played some good rugby and we kept scoring points ourselves.

“I’m unbelievably proud of that because there were a few things that were called into question after that Bordeaux performance and rightly so, in terms of what we delivered that weekend.”

They may have run up their own highest scoring tally on English soil, but they need some more stodge to go along with the sugar.

They welcome back Mack Hansen after injury against Bordeaux. But they also face a team who have a score to settle. Connacht scored a sensational win over Ulster here to reach last year’s URC semi-finals.

That, along with the early season loss this term, will have the home dressing room hopping. The reinstalment of John Cooney to scrum-half left them looking far more accomplished last weekend in their win over Racing 92.

Michael Lowry is in spritely form at full-back while the centre-field partnership of James Hume and Stuart McCloskey will keep any team busy.

It seems that Ulster are only ever two defeats away from the old faithful tag of ‘basket case’ being flung at them, ghosts of Brian O’Driscoll Punditry Past-style.

Head coach Dan McFarland keeps telling us that it is ongoing to change their philosophy, make it all a bit more exciting and dangerous in different areas of the field. He also had the refreshing attitude of telling how the players cooked up the various schemes that resulted in three of the four tries against Racing 92, which shows a squad and a coach at ease in their roles.

The formlines are obvious.

But it’s an inter-pros game a few days before Christmas with a gale-force wind blowing.

Let’s see who it favours.

– Updated 12.33pm: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Connacht beat Sale Sharks in November; they beat The Sharks, based in Durban, South Africa.