FOLLOWING last week’s last-gasp win over Glasgow Warriors in Belfast, it’s very much an away assignment this week as Ulster face the first of two URC games in South Africa.

Richie Murphy’s side squeezed home by the minimum against the defending champions to get their season off to a winning start with Dave Shanahan finding a gap to touch down for the winning score and they will hope this will provide some momentum for this week’s game against Emirates Lions in Johannesburg (Saturday, 11.55am Irish time, live on Premier Sports).

The South African side did not have as enjoyable a weekend as they fell to a 6-14 Currie Cup Final defeat in extra-time to Hollywoodbets Sharks.

They are formidable opposition with Emirates Airline Park a difficult place to visit as Glasgow and Leinster found out last season as the Lions’ late push for the playoffs fell just short, but Ulster did come away with a 39-37 on their last visit to Johannesburg.

Juan Schoeman, Sanele Nohamba and Quan Horn are three players to watch this week but the South African’s have a host of top-class players and will be keen to get their URC campaign off to a good start.

Ulster travelled with a 30-strong squad for this mini tour which will se them travel to Pretoria next week to meet Vodacom Bulls, with hooker Tadgh McElroy joining on a short-term injury cover deal. 

Last week’s win was an ideal start for Richie Murphy’s men and match-winner Shanahan os hopeful they can push on again on their travels.

“It’s always good to win your first game of the season,” he agreed after the Glasgow win.

“We have a couple of tough games away in South Africa so it will be a tough challenge but we can kick on from this result.

“There’s a lot of things we can work on, probably a few technical things around the breakdown area we could tidy up on, making sure we get good clean ball and not letting them hang around in there for too long.

“You have to give the lads credit, it wasn’t pretty but seeing we can do that is a big plus. The lads grinded out the win there.”