Ferris expects Edinburgh backlash
October 15 2009
Ulster back rower Stephen Ferris reckons Edinburgh will be a tough proposition on Saturday despite the Scottish side's mauling by Stade Francais.
Edinburgh went down 31-7 in Paris last weekend, while Ulster kicked off their Heineken Cup campaign with an impressive 26-12 victory over Bath at Ravenhill.
But after Edinburgh's 16-13 Magners League win in Belfast last month, Ferris is expecting a close contest at Murrayfield.
"We have had a good start but we have to keep our feet on the ground because Edinburgh is a place where we always have a tight game," said the Ireland Grand Slam winner.
"They beat us at Ravenhill earlier in the season and the result there always seems to turn on a bounce of the ball or a kick from Chris Paterson. They are a dangerous side and we will need to close them down and play some more rugby like we did against Bath.
"It was a fantastic start for us and. we just need to keep the ball rolling now. Getting the result was the most important thing.
Ferris has also been fired up by the fact that the champions of 10 years ago have largely been written off by the pundits.
"We are playing some good stuff and teams are starting to respect us more," he added.
"I don't think we were the underdogs going into the game.
"I saw in the paper that the bookies had us at 100/1 to win the Heineken Cup. That really annoyed me.
"We wanted to prove we are a team on the up and I think we did that. One of our goals is to get out of the group this season.
"Even though Edinburgh beat us at Ravenhill, we can take some encouragement from that game because we created a lot of chances. This is a different competition and people up their games for the Heineken Cup.
"I think it's a pretty even group and every side is going to be difficult to beat at
home. We are riding on some momentum at the moment and we will look to take that to Edinburgh.
"But we have to stay on an even keel and not get ahead of ourselves - we have won one game, not the Heineken Cup."