Stuart McCloskey issues rallying call for Kingspan support after crushing European defeat against Sale

Ulster’s Champions Cup campaign go off to a disastrous start as Sale ran in six tries against Dan McFarland’s shell-shocked side en-route to a 39-0 victory in Pool B.

The defeat at the AJ Bell Stadium in Salford was the first time Ulster had ever failed to score any points in a European game and came on the back of last week’s second-half surrender against Leinster.

La Rochelle will arrive in Belfast on a high after sweeping aside Northampton Saints 46-12 to secure a bonus point victory.

In what is now a must-win game against Ronan O’Gara’s French side, McCloskey knows Ulster can’t afford to slip up in front of the home fans this weekend.

“Try to keep faith, it is what it is,” he said. "There are ups and downs, you have to get to a place where people have to expect something for you to get disappointed.

“It is nice to get to that stage where people expect us to do well in big games.

“We have got to deliver. If we win next week, it isn’t the end of the world, we go into Christmas and get a couple of wins then we bounce on but obviously we can’t keep compounding these bad loses week on week.

“It’s only two weeks in a long season,” McCloskey added.

"We’ll look at it and hopefully go into La Rochelle with a bit more positive energy.”

Reflecting on Saturday’s crushing defeat against Sale, McCloskey said he wanted to “forget it”.

“Sale, it’s one of those ones you want to try and get over it, forget about it and get on to next week,” he said.

“It is a pretty short turnaround to La Rochelle. It is a big game at home to the European Champions and we need to win that.”

Head coach Dan McFarland is also keen to focus on the next game against La Rochelle.

He said: “Most of our energy going into next week will be focusing on what we have got to do against La Rochelle, we are not going to fall into a swamp of self-pity.”