After opening the season with a bonus-point win over the Dragons, the province were hoping to continue that feelgood factor in the Scottish capital, only for Storm Amy to force the abandonment of the game on safety grounds.
That means the two sides will have to do battle again later in the season, likely during a down week when both sides will be missing their international contingents, and is an unexpected stumbling block early in the campaign.
But having put together a solid performance in week one, particularly after the doom and gloom from last season, there was naturally a disappointment within the Ulster squad they didn’t get the chance to try and maintain that in their second outing.
“We were gutted we didn’t get that game. We felt we’d prepared well and it just breaks a bit of momentum, we were pretty happy with the first week even if we had a few things to tidy up. It would have been nice to get another one but thankful to get home in one piece,” said Duffy.
“We trained a little bit lightly just to keep people moving. But these guys are athletes, you’ve just got to make sure they’re pointing towards Saturday or Friday depending. It would have been ideal to play the game and return home, but thankfully everybody got home safe and were pretty fresh on Monday.
“The emotional threshold, you rise it for a game and then the game isn’t there, so that’s something that the staff felt that as well as the players. Thankfully I’m not on the pitch anymore, but you’ve just got to get over it. It’s just part of the season.
“That game will be re-fixed at some point, I don’t know when, so we’ll have to rise to that challenge again then.”
Ulster are trying to kick on from their win over Dragons
With the physicality of the Vodacom Bulls coming to Ravenhill for their URC round three fixture on Saturday, followed by their annual two-game trip to South Africa to face the Holywoodbets Sharks and Emirates Lions the following two weeks, a week off perhaps wasn’t the worst thing for Ulster.
Getting the bodies rested for three consecutive matches against bruising forward packs could prove invaluable if it leads to points on the board early in the season, particularly in the front row where Ireland Under-20s prop Tom McAllister was nearly forced into action at the weekend.
“He’s been training really, really well. We have committed to getting as many minutes into some of the younger players as we possibly can, but he’s impressed us with the 20s. He’s trained very, very well with us,” praised Duffy.
“The fact that he can play on both sides of the scrum is something quite unique and very, very useful in a professional environment. He’s been great, picks up detail well, likes to learn, works really, really hard. He’s well-respected by the coaches and by the players.
“What we need is younger players pushing from behind as well, all pushing to get on the park. It’ll be good to see.
“We’re comfortable in the squad and I suppose something that Richie had set out from the very beginning was trying to increase the depth in positions and increase the competition. So if we’ve got depth and competition, then we’re in a pretty good space as a club.
“In fairness, training has been really, really good through the summer. We’re kind of finding it’s more and more difficult to break each other out in training. People are deserving of shots as well. We’re comfortable in rotating players in certain positions as well, to be honest.”
The Bulls have been boosted by being able to bring 13 Springboks for their first tour of the season, which sees them face Connacht and Glasgow Warriors after Saturday’s trip at Ravenhill, adding to the challenge that Ulster face this weekend.
Marcell Coetzee won’t face his old side this week
They won’t face former Belfast favourite Marcell Coetzee, who misses out after sustaining a head knock in last week’s win over Leinster, but that makes their team no less formidable given the depth at Johan Ackermann’s disposal.
“I think probably for us, we would have a base fundamental plan just around our contact both sides of the ball, what we’d go after and just being as true as you possibly can to that,” continued Duffy.
“If you’re trying to make collisions head-on, then you’re going to get what you deserve. We’ve just got to be smart about how we do it, make sure we implement our game plan consistently throughout the 80 minutes and make sure that the boys understand the importance of getting our stuff right.
“They have a lot of quality in that team. On the tight end side, numerous guys, (Wilco) Louw, (Mornay) Smith, then loose you have (Jan-Hendrik) Wessels, you’ve got (Gerhard) Steenekamp, the hookers are all very accomplished. These guys know what they’re doing and they’ve got a big back five also. Very, very complete scrummaging unit. Very, very keen to get forward and cause you some problems there.
“Number one is mentally you’ve got to be on your mark to at least combat that and tactically then you can adjust little bits and pieces as you go.”