Kurt McQuilkin's Ulster Preview

"The players are up for it, we're up for it, and I'm sure that Ulster will be up for it because it's a local derby so all the tribalism will be coming out, so it should be good. When you look at their players such as (Stephen) Ferris and even their wings Timoci Nagusa, (Simon) Danielli and Andrew Trimble, they have big physical players so it should be a tough game. You'll have to match that physicality, first and foremost, and put them under a bit of pressure.

"CJ (van der Linde) had a scan on Monday afternoon so he's walking around and off the crutches, which is a good sign, so please God he'll be alright. Everyone else is fine apart from the long term injuries. Sexto' (Jonathan Sexton) could be back possibly for Connacht or Glasgow.

"Though the boys were happy with the two wins over the Scarlets, having watched the likes of Munster play against a very Perpignan side, it puts it in a bit of perspective. From a defensive point of view we were probably still a bit sore about conceding a try in each of the games and that's something we can work on. The flow was good, there was some good movement, and our concentration was a lot better last weekend than it was the previous weekend.

"We're not getting carried away with ourselves though. Though our (defensive) record has been good, I'm not the one making the tackles and if I was perhaps it (tries against tally) would be higher than it is at the moment! The players have really bought into it. We're all pretty happy with our system now and we're always looking to get better. Even though we have had two reasonably good wins we let in two soft tries which hurts everyone, which is a good sign because you want to look to improve constantly.

"There was a ten-minute section in the match (last weekend) when we lost a bit of urgency. Everything just went flat from our attack right through to our defence which probably resulted in the concession of the try. We're trying to knock that out of our game. It's hard to know why that happens because they're very intense in training, it's just one of those things.

"The same thing happened over in the Scarlets but possibly for a longer period when it extended to the first 15 minutes of the second half. It's something we've highlighted and something we're keen to knock out of our system especially in these derby games be it against Ulster, Munster or Connacht. If you do that against these teams and they'll hurt you."