ULSTER HEAD COACH Dan McFarland has issued a ‘bring it on’ cry as his side are set for yet another European knockout meeting with interprovincial rivals Leinster in the last 16 of the Heineken Champions Cup.

McFarland’s men booked their place in the knockouts with a 22-11 win over Sale Sharks at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday night.

And while it is not officially confirmed that Leinster await in the first play-off round in April, it seems to be headed that way.

The overwhelming likelihood is that Montpellier will get the better of London Irish on Sunday afternoon, which would knock Ulster down from seventh to eighth seeds in Pool B and would set up a mouthwatering all-Irish tie after Leinster secured top spot in Pool A earlier in the day.

Tries from Rob Lyttle, Rob Herring and Duane Vermeulen saw Ulster squeeze into the last-16 thanks to their victory over the Sharks despite it being their only win in the pool stages, but perhaps more importantly was the much-improved performance compared to their recent run of six losses in their last seven.

And although the province’s ‘reward’ appears to be a trip to a side that seem to knock them out of tournaments on a yearly basis, McFarland is excited to get the chance to lock horns again later in the season.

“I quite fancy Leinster. Challenge yourself against the best,” he grinned.

“We’ll definitely look forward to it with enthusiasm, purely on the fact that we get to play the best team in Europe in a play-off game. We’re always looking for opportunities.

There’s nothing on paper that says we should win that game and we’ll take that. We’ll go in, not with nothing to lose but everything to gain. We’ll put that on the backburner, it’s still a while away.

In the short term, Ulster looked much closer to their best against the Sharks than they have done in recent weeks, rallying from behind after Ben Curry’s early second-half try put them 11-8 in arrears to secure a deserved come from behind win.

The pack took control in the final quarter and banished the demons of three late defeats in the last three weeks with a consummate performance to secure the four points as Herring piloted a maul over the line before Vermeulen buried his way over for the clinching try.

While Ulster repeatedly offered assurances in midweek that confidence had not wavered amidst a run that saw them win just once in seven outings, results on the pitch did not follow, and there were real fears they could miss out on the knockouts of the Champions Cup for only the second time in McFarland’s five seasons in charge.

Despite that, the former Connacht prop insisted the emotion shared in the dressing room after the game was not relief, rather it was a jubilant group of players that greeted him after the game.

“I wouldn’t say relieved. Happy,” countered McFarland. “That’s the goal, you want to play in the play-off games and we’ve done it again.

We came out, we wanted to put on a performance at home, in front of our fans, in our house, and I thought the crowd was electric tonight, the atmosphere was brilliant.

“I think a chunk of that was to do with how we played. I thought we were excellent on both sides of the ball. It wasn’t perfect, obviously, but Sale are a really good team, they don’t let many tries in.

“I thought across the board we had some fantastic performances.”

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