It hasn’t been easy for Ulster Director of Rugby Les Kiss over the last three months.
There was the loss to Zebre at the end of September, the trouncing away to La Rochelle and the defeat at home to Leinster in October, and the embarrassing 28-point drubbing last weekend away to Connacht.
The pressure on Kiss will continue to mount as Ulster welcome Johan van Graan’s Munster to the Kingspan Stadium on New Year’s Day. The two-time European champions have won four of their first five games under the South African and have averaged a highly impressive 30.8 points per game.
By contrast, Ulster are conceding an average of 24.7 points per game, indicating that Monday’s interprovincial derby should be a high scoring affair.
Charles Piutau’s return from leg bruising should only strengthen that theory as Ulster’s most dangerous attacking threat rejoins a side that is reeling from a record defeat to Connacht.
The All Blacks utility admits that his side are under pressure but that they must play for the besieged Kiss.
“Hopefully, come Monday, we’ll make everyone proud,” Piutau told the club’s official website.
“The pressure is on but I am excited for it. What a day, what an occasion it will be! To play against an in-form Munster team on New Year’s Day, at home in Kingspan Stadium, will be special.
“Training has been tough this week. The intensity is up there and we’re really challenging each other because we know what this game means.
“We’re one team of players, management and coaches, and we want to get the win for each other. We want to do it for our coaches and for Les (Kiss) because he means a lot to us and does a lot for this club.”
Former Ulster and Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris said that Kiss’ side will be in line for a similar drubbing against Munster if they fail to address their issues from the Connacht loss.
“Defensively, they looked all over the place and they could not get a foothold in the game at all,” Ferris said on the BBC’s post-match show.
“Even when Connacht took their foot off the gas at times Ulster still didn’t look like they were going to create much. We talked about them being good with ball in hand but we never saw any of that tonight.
“Even scoring 50 odd points last week against Harlequins, I think they were lucky to score a couple of tries tonight in Galway.
“Connacht thoroughly deserved the win, they out-muscled them, they made them look very average at times, especially up front.
“That’s really got to be addressed against a Munster team that is coming to the Kingspan, who took a Leicester team, who is renowned for being good up front, and took them apart these last couple of weeks, so it’s a tough hill to climb.”
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