Ulster

It was January 27 when it was announced that Dan McFarland has snapped up the Glasgow Warriors second row. 

At that time, Nakarawa had only played just the once for the Scottish club in the 2020/21 season but he went on to make seven more appearances, his most recent coming in a late April run off the bench in the loss to Benetton.

Nearly seven weeks later it has been confirmed that the one-year deal penned by the 62-cap, 33-year-old Fijian forward won’t now be going ahead.   

The visitors trailed 22-10 at the break in Port Elizabeth, where Berton Klaasen, Yaw Penxe and Michael Makase all crossed for the former Super Rugby franchise.

There were further tries for both Klaasen and Penxe after the break, but it was not enough to prevent a rampant Ulster from overpowering their hosts.

Sean Reidy and John Andrew both scored in the first half to keep Ulster in touch and the away team came to life in the second half.

The home side came into Friday's clash having learned that flanker Marcell Coetzee will be out for another nine months after returning to South Africa to have further surgery on a serious knee injury.

Wasps are injury-ravaged themselves with director of rugby Dai Young complaining of having to open their European campaign just five days after defeat to Saracens in the Premiership, while Ulster enjoyed an extra 48 hours' rest following their Pro14 win over Connacht last weekend.

Lealiifano joined from Brumbies on a short-term deal in August and is due to head back to the Super Rugby side in early 2018.

The fly-half, who was diagnosed with leukaemia last year but returned to the sport in July after revealing he was in remission, is yet to fully consider remaining at the Irish province longer than initially planned, but suggested he would be open to it.

"I can't look too far ahead. I'll go until the end of January and do the best I can," Lealiifano told BBC Sport.

Gibbes, the former Waikato loose forward-lock who played eight tests for New Zealand in 2004 and 2005, has been forwards coach at French giants Clermont.

Gibbes, 40, is no stranger to the wider Irish scene, being forwards coach at Leinster for six years, helping them to three Heineken Cup titles and working alongside fellow Kiwi and current Ireland coach Joe Schmidt as well as Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.

He moved to France in 2014 but now returns for the prime role in Belfast.