Ulster’s glamour Champions Cup tie with Bordeaux-Bégles has been confirmed for Sunday, April 6 (12.30pm) at the Stade Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux.
While Bordeaux blew away all before them on their way to topping Pool 1, Ulster only squeezed through on the final weekend by virtue of a 52-24 win over the Exeter Chiefs.
It was Ulster’s only win of the pool stages which has saw further fuel being added to the fire that the current structure of the tournament is not fit for purpose, and that teams like Ulster would be better suited to life in the Challenge Cup.
But assistant head coach Dan Soper isn’t standing for any of that chat and after squeezing through from a difficult pool that included three former winners, the Kiwi believes that Ulster are rightly taking their place among Europe’s elite.
“Certainly, getting into the last 16 we’re very pleased with,” said Soper.
“I know there’s been a lot of commentary around us not being good enough to be in the last 16 and we would be better off in the Challenge Cup – but we played two of the best teams in the world (Toulouse and Bordeaux-Bégles) in our pool and at periods in those games we competed.
“You see what they’ve done to other teams. Leicester wasn’t a great performance but we’re into the last 16 and we’re pleased to be there and looking forward to the challenge.”
Soper refused get drawn into tournament structures, citing that his job is make sure that Ulster can be as best prepared as they possibly can be. Instead he said that he’s happy for those in control to do what’s best for the game under difficult circumstances:
“I just turn up and coach the team. Everyone used to love the old system, didn’t they?
“Six games home and away and then the back-to-back at Christmas and all that. Further up the food chain there’s not enough weekends to fit them all in. It is what it is, we just turn up and look forward to the challenge of Europe.”
In the short term though the focus of attention swings back to the URC and the visit of Zebre Parma to Ravenhill on Sunday evening and after last Friday night’s win over Exeter, Soper is hoping to see his troops continue to show signs of improvement.
“Obviously the result is the most important thing but we need to develop our game and how we’re trying to play.
“If we get a win on Sunday but we’re not developing or growing as a team then, come the back-end of the season in Europe or in knock-out rugby in the URC, we’re not going to be good enough to compete.
“We’ve got to keep getting better as a rugby team and that’s what we’ll be looking for as a team on Sunday afternoon, improvement in our performance. We saw bits of that on Friday night and hopefully we see a bit more of that.”
