Ulster lacked confidence against Sale Sharks - Dan McFarland

Ulster head coach Dan McFarland admitted that his side lacked confidence in the defeat to Sale Sharks during the opening game of the Heineken Champions Cup at AJ Bell Stadium.

Tom Curry and Daniel du Preez scored first half tries for Sale Sharks while Rob du Preez, Tom Curtis, Byron McGuigan and Arron Reed all touched down in the second half as the Premiership side went on to complete a dominating 39-0 victory in front of their home crowd.

This was also a second successive defeat for the Irish province after they were edged out by Leinster 29-38 in the ninth round United Rugby Championship clash between the two sides and McFarland admitted that his side lacked belief.

“We are probably lacking a bit of confidence at the moment, we saw that towards the end of the Leinster game and we definitely saw a bit of that,” he said.

“Confidence is a funny thing.

“It can only take a small thing to re-spark it or it can get knocked by a couple of things that don’t go your way.

“We have certainly got to find our mojo and get back to doing the things that we are good at which we didn’t see.”

Ulster will be locking horns with La Rochelle in the second round of the competition at Kingspan Stadium on 17th December.