Ulster coach Dan McFarland has strongly criticised the decision to switch Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup game against La Rochelle to Dublin.
The game was moved by the competition’s organisers on Friday night because of concerns over the Kingspan Stadium pitch after a week of freezing weather.
Ulster lost the Aviva Stadium game 36-29 after trailing 29-0 at half-time.
“The bottom line is the decision was wrong. It could have been played at Ravenhill,” said McFarland.
The late venue switch meant that the match was played behind-closed-doors at the Dublin venue as Ulster lost home advantage.
‘We knew it was going to be ready’
“My personal opinion is that we were there this morning at 10 o’clock, 9.30am, and that pitch was playable,” added the Ulster coach.
“I was there the night before and the people there predicted that it was going to be playable.
“We knew it was going to be ready because the weather was predicted to change overnight. But that decision was taken away from us.”
Prior to Saturday’s match, Ulster Rugby’s chief executive Jonny Petrie told BBC Radio Ulster’s Sportsound that European Professional Club Rugby should have delayed a final decision on the game until Saturday morning or taken the decision to defer the match 24 hours, with temperatures forecast to rise to around 11 degrees on Sunday.
McFarland said the decision left the encounter with all the atmosphere of an “e-sports tournament”.
“I’ve been involved in European rugby for more than 20 years,” added the Ulster coach.
“There is more to European rugby than a game played between four lines. There’s more than that. It’s an occasion. Whether you’re in Thomond playing Toulouse, whether you’re in [Belfast] playing against Racing, whether you’re in Welford Road watching Dan Cole win his 300th cap, it’s an occasion.
“It has spirit, it has feeling. If you want to reduce it to the word product, the product is more than just the game. To me, that should be remembered in the decision making in this sort of thing.
“Whether you watch it on TV or sat in the stands, the occasion is lost without fans in the stadium. The game isn’t lost, the occasion is lost. The product is more than just the game.”
Second-half tries from Iain Henderson, John Cooney, Duane Vermeulen and Tom Stewart helped Ulster clinch two losing bonus points to keep their hopes alive in the competition, as Cooney’s final-kick penalty cut La Rochelle’s lead to seven points.
