Hooker John Andrew has warned Ulster they can’t afford to fixate on Leinster or adopt tunnel vision for their Interpro rivals in the race to reach next month’s Guinness Pro14 final.
With only two group winners progressing to the March 27 showpiece, it’s now a two horse race between the Irish rivals to finish top of Conference A.
Dan McFarland’s men have five games to overhaul Leinster’s four point advantage at the summit, with the Blues set to roll into Belfast on March 6.
But while that Kingspan clash in a fortnight’s time will go a long way to deciding Ulster’s fate, Andrew insists the province’s other four games are just as key.
Ahead of Friday night’s trip to Glasgow, he said: “We’re not looking past this week. If you end up thinking about what can happen in a month, I don’t think it’ll do us any good.
“With only the leaders in each Conference going through, we know the task in front of us and this team won’t shy away from that. We’ll try and relish it.
“But you can’t be looking at game four and five when you could slip up in the first one or two, so we’ll focus on Glasgow and prepare for that.”
McFarland acknowledged earlier this week that it’ll probably take five wins and as many bonus points to pip Leinster to top spot between now and the end of March.
Leo Cullen’s men inflicted a 24-12 defeat on Ulster in their last outing on January 8, a result that ended a 10 game unbeaten run in the competition
After this week’s trip to Glasgow, Ulster have two home games against the Ospreys and Leinster before concluding the regular season against Dragons (A) and Zebre (H).
“We know what we need to do and it gives us a target to go for,” said Andrew.
“Hopefully we’re coming into better weather which will also allow for a bit more flowing rugby which could hopefully lead to trying to get bonus points.
“But there is no point thinking about five weeks’ time because we know we have a job in front of us now and that’s what we’re preparing for.”
Ulster warmed up for their first fixture in five weeks with a training game against Ireland a fortnight ago in a contest described as “pretty physical” by Andy Farrell.
“It was good to go up against lads in the Irish team,” said Andrew.
“They were looking to prove a point and there were plenty on our side looking to prove a point, so it kept it fresh after the break we had.
“We’ve spent weeks running against each other (at Ulster), but we all run the same plays and know the patterns, so it was nice to freshen it up.”
