Ferris out of Heineken Cup clash

Stephen Ferris continues to struggle with a knee problem

Stephen Ferris has been ruled out of Ulster’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Northampton on 10 April.

Ferris requires a further exploratory operation on his injured knee so he will not join Ian Humphreys and BJ Botha in returning for Friday’s Magners League game against the Scarlets.

Humphreys and Botha will both be given some game time on Friday night.

Humphreys has missed recent games with a hamstring injury while Botha has been suffering with an elbow complaint.

Ferris was assessed by a surgeon on Tuesday and a decision was taken for him to undergo arthroscopic surgery.

The Ulster coach said his players had come out on top after an “exceptionally tough game” against Glasgow but added that it was “not an easy place to go”.

“We were delighted to come away with the points and are very pleased that we are in a play-off position in the Magners League – now we aim to stay there.

“This is a cup final for the Scarlets and it’s a cup final for us – we need to win and so do they.

“We made errors at crucial times against Glasgow and maybe we were forcing it a bit – we were maybe a bit too eager.

“We were not overly happy with our attack last week so much of the emphasis has been put on that this week.”

McLaughlin explained that it would be up to Ruan Pienaar and Humphreys to decide who would take the kicks at Ravenhill on Friday night.

“It is totally up to them – I’ll leave them to make a decision themselves,” he said.

Coach Nigel Davies acknowledges that the game is a huge one for the Scarlets in their quest to reach the end of season play-offs.

The Scarlets are currently outside the play-off places and are sixth following their 22-16 win over Benetton Treviso last Sunday.

“I’ve told the players that there’s always a couple of games in any one season that defines your season – this is one of them,” said Davies.

“We were disappointed with our performance against Treviso, albeit it was a three pointer from our point of view. But it might not be a bad thing in the long run.

“We had a lot of boys coming back from international duty who were maybe not quite on the same playing field as the other guys.

“It was a big wake up call for us and we’ve done it off the back of a win. We know we’ve got to pick the levels up considerably from Sunday’s performance but I’m sure the boys will do that.”

Ulster squad: Forwards: R Diack, BJ Botha, D Fitzpatrick, B Young, C Henry, T Court, D Tuohy, T Barker, W Faloon, P McAllister, J Cronin, P Wannenburg, J Muller, A Kyriacou, TJ Anderson, N Brady, R Caldwell, R Best.

Backs: A D’Arcy, I Humphreys, P Marshall, R Pienaar, A Trimble, C Gaston, T Seymour, D McIlwaine, M McCrea, J Smith, N Spence, I Whitten, D Cave, C Gilroy, N O’Connor, P Wallace, S Danielli

Scarlets: tbc