Ulster: Province have earned right to be playing in Pro14 play-offs - Dan McFarland
- Published
Leinster are the only side to have defeated Ulster in the Pro14 this season
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland says his side deserve to be looking forward to a Pro14 play-off this year, after their final hopes were dashed by Leinster.
This season's format, altered by the pandemic and the expected arrival of four South African teams, saw the traditional season-ending play-offs scrapped.
Only the top sides from each conference, Leinster and Munster, advance to the final on the earlier date of 27 March.
In April the existing Pro14 sides will be introduced to the South African franchises in the inaugural Rainbow Cup.
"We weren't good enough to be top of our conference this year and we've definitively said we were good enough to be second," said McFarland.
"In my personal opinion, if you finish second in your conference in the format the league is around at the moment, you should be playing play-off games.
"We've earned the right to be playing a play-off game. It just seems like a real damp squib that there's only going to be one game to finish the season, and a season where a lot of these games have been characterised by under-strength teams.
"Fans are surely crying out for the play-offs, games that have actual knock-out meaning."
Ulster have only lost twice in this season's competition, both defeats coming at the hands of Leinster.
McFarland's side have finished second in Conference A in all three of the last seasons, but this campaign is the first in which they will not advance beyond the regular season.
"The administrators of the game, the formula they have to work to is so difficult and complex. I understand it's got to be mixed in with weekends and timings, there's obviously commercial interests and all of that," he said.
"I can't speak to the complexities of their decision-making processes, what I can speak to is that fact that at the end of the 16-game round robin season, it just doesn't seem right that there's only one game to finish it.
"People love play-off games."
Thrown off-course against Leinster by key decisions
Ulster started well against Leinster and surged into an early 12-3, but the reigning champions wrestled back control of the contest and benefitted from several key decisions, including Andrew Warwick's red card and Robert Baloucoune's disallowed try.
There were also five yellow cards in a frantic inter-provincial tussle, with Leinster receiving three and Ulster two.
"To me there was no game after those situations that ended in red cards and yellow cards for us, tries for them and not tries for us," McFarland reflected.
Four yellow cards and one red were shown during Saturday's interpro
"There's no game, it doesn't appear like a contest because everything is framed in the situation, the context of what's happened.
"The only way I could look at it is the little bits that I saw after that, they were very impressive.
"They upped their tempo and I thought our efforts to hang in there and be competitive were really excellent."
Ulster now face two dead rubbers in the Pro14 before their attentions turn to the European Challenge Cup, which they join in the round of 16 having lost their two Champions Cup group games.