Tackle on Henderson 'didn't look great' - Soper

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Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper has said Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan's tackle on Iain Henderson which led to the latter suffering a concussion in last weekend's United Rugby Championship game "didn't look great".

Ireland second row Henderson was withdrawn 15 minutes into Ulster's win and failed his head injury assessment, with the club subsequently ruling him out of Friday's game against Ospreys.

Heffernan's challenge was not reviewed by the officials at the time with Soper suggesting that not doing so was not in keeping with trying to make rugby safer.

"My thoughts initially were it didn鈥檛 look great, did it?," said Soper.

"But everyone鈥檚 had a good look and we all have our opinions on it. The decision was made at the time, it is what it is.

"We鈥檙e trying to keep the game safer, but it wasn鈥檛 quite the case on Saturday night, was it?"

Henderson joins a growing list of players currently unavailable to Ulster. Centre Stewart Moore sustained a shoulder injury in the Connacht game and will also miss the Ospreys fixture, while fellow backs Jude Postlethwaite and Ethan McIlroy are doubts.

Rob Baloucoune, Jake Flannery, James Hume, Rob Herring and Tom Stewart remain out with longer term injuries, but centre Stuart McCloskey and prop Eric O'Sullivan have returned to training.