Stephen Ferris: Ulster are a 'nice team to play against'

Ulster need to up their physicality and are too 'nice' to play against, former Ireland international Stephen Ferris has warned.

Richie Murphy's side beat URC champions Glasgow at home in the opening match, a tie in which they were second best for large spells, and lost heavily against the Lions (35-22) and Bulls (47-21) in South Africa.

Pete Wilkins’ high-flying Connacht, with 11 points from a possible 15, are the visitors to Ravenhill on Saturday evening (8pm, live on RTÉ).

Ulster are currently 13th in the standings and boast the worst scrum return of the 16 teams; they are 15th in the lineout rankings and 14th in defence.

Rebuilding and bringing through younger players is the theme of Murphy’s first full season in charge but Ferris, who played over 100 times for the province, has concerns.

"Every team has these young guys with lots of potential coming through but Ulster are struggling to find these guys, specifically in the forwards," he told RTÉ 2fm’s Game On.

"You go back to 2006/07 or 2012/13, there was always a pack there to give you front-foot ball.

"You look at that Bulls side, they were in second gear, going through the motions, their big pack of forwards ate Ulster up.

"We haven’t seen the best of Aidan Morgan at out-half, haven’t seen the best of Mike Lowry, who was outstanding at the end of last season.

"I feel Ulster are a nice team to play against. They are not a team that really get wired into you, they don’t make dominant tackles.

"I think it’s one in every 100 tackles is a dominant tackle, that’s not going to make inroads and put teams on the back foot.

"If you hold onto the ball against Ulster, inevitably you will score.

"Even though Ulster can fire back and are very good at scoring points themselves and some nice