Robert Baloucoune, who has been injured and is now back in Ulster training, could play in Sunday’s Champions Cup away match at Northampton.
He missed the Ulster home win over Northampton the following week and has been regaining his fitness ever since.
James Hume, John Cooney, and James Hume have injury doubts after they were forced to go during Ulster’s defeat by Munster.
Cooney is a scrum-half and has suffered a calf problem. Hume, on the other hand, is experiencing a problem with his hamstring.
After their two European wins, their victory at Franklin’s Gardens will be enough to guarantee Ulster a final 16 spot with one game remaining against Clermont.
Ulster seeks home knockout ties
But, two victories in the final pool will guarantee home ties by Ulster in the quarter-finals or 16 – if they win the first knockout game. So Dan McFarland’s side have great motivation to keep up their European success over the next two weekend.
Assistant coach Dan Soper thought the Irish province were “just slightly off in a few areas at Thomond Park.” Munster came back from being 7-0 down and lost Simon Zebo early to an early red card to win a gritty 18-13 victory.
Soper said, “Trying create momentum in this game, we didn’t lose that in the middle pitch in terms creating momentum to give back our backs an option,”
“And sometimes, when we needed their backs to step up,” they didn’t quite do it either.
“It’s just an important lesson that you have to learn every week in the competitions we’re playing, or else you get discovered.”
Soper stated that Ulster’s European campaign success will be ruined if they fall to Northampton who beat Newcastle Falcons 44-8 on Saturday in the English Premiership.
“If we fail to do the job this weekend, we fall back in the pack and you begin to rely on the outcome at the pool’s end. We don’t want that.”
Ulster lacked ‘smarts’ at Thomond
Tom O’Toole, Ulster’s prop, felt that the team’s defeat in Limerick was due to a lack “smarts”.
The forward from Ireland said that he believed the effort and work rate were there.
“But they were playing away in Thomond Park, and missing those key moments just gives the them life and energy. And they came back at me and did really, really good.
It’s about identifying when there is an opportunity to bring a team under the pressure. We just didn’t do as well as we could.
“We have put the past week to bed, but we can take the lessons and apply them to this week and continue to create energy and spark.”
O’Toole was in Ulster squad which beat Northampton 35-27 in a European Challenge Cup quarter-final last autumnBut that was behind closed doors and the prop expects a completely different atmosphere this weekend.
“It’s an exciting place to play, but it’s also very hostile. I’ve talked to people who’ve been there before and they say it’s a fun place to play.