Coach Neil Doak hopes Ulster execute gameplan against Toulon

Ulster Head Coach Neil Doak hopes his side can execute their gameplan to good effect in Saturday's Champions Cup Pool 3 game against Toulon in Belfast.

The match is one which the Irish province must win to retain realistic hopes of making the last eight after last week's defeat by Leicester.

"We've looked at them and tried to identify a few weaknesses," said Doak.

"The key for us is that we are accurate with the ball, don't give them chances and try to stretch their defences."

"They are European champions and are obviously a very formidable side, so they have plenty of strengths and loads of quality players.

"We need to hold onto the ball and test their defensive lines - hopefully we can break them down, be clinical and finish things off."

While Toulon have won the now defunct Heineken Cup for the last two years, the French Super 14 champions have proved to be fallible in domestic competition this season, a fact which allied with the fact that French clubs do not tend to travel well in Europe, should give Ulster hope.

"We've studied a few games where they came out on the wrong end of the result and put a few pieces together gameplan wise.

"They have a lot of quality in their side but we have quality on our side too, internationals and Lions players across the board, so it has the makings of a great match.

"We must make sure we get the crowd behind us and negate anything that Toulon throw at us."

Reflecting on the 25-18 defeat to the Tigers at Welford Road, Doak indicated that his side had been unable to dictate the tempo of proceedings in the way they would have liked.

"When you don't have the ball, you can't dictate your gameplan and play at the tempo that suits you.

"To give Leicester 10 points when we started with possession was frustrating and our lack of accuracy was our downfall.

"The players came back and scored two tries playing at the tempo we had hoped to play at for the entire game."

Meanwhile Ulster captain Rory Best says the Ravenhill squad is looking forward to testing themselves against the best players in the world and "seeing how far we have come as a team".

"It will be a tough one for us but I'm sure they're not looking forward to coming here either.

"We made too many mistakes against Leicester, compounding errors with errors, and they were able to capitalise on that.

"You can't fault our commitment though and the boys showed great spirit to come back and show everyone what we could do in the second half.

"We have to put in a big performance on Saturday as it's crucial to come out on top in your home games in this competition, and then pick up what you can on the road."