Billy Burns hoping Ulster can maintain momentum in United Rugby Championship

The win at Kings Park followed on from October’s success against the Lions.

Billy Burns was among a number of players who didn’t travel to Durban but he feels that Ulster are now learning to cope with the trips to the Rainbow Nation.

“It's been a good place for us (South Africa) as we’ve done the double over there this year, which I don’t think has been done yet,” said Burns.

“Every time we go there, we try and learn different things and hopefully implement them next time we go there.

“I think you do acclimatise. Obviously we travelled out a lot later this time with it being a rearranged fixture and it was difficult, but the more times you do something the more you get used to it.

“It was our first time playing in Durban I think, in my time anyway, bar last time – which we won’t talk about – but you could see the boys did really well and you could see in the game that the humidity was unbelievable, and it made the ball really slippery. But we’ll be better prepared for that experience next time we go there.

“When you go over to play the Lions and the Sharks you understand how tough the challenge is and you know how tough the tour is going to be and you really buy into the whole two weeks you’re out there,” he added.

“We were better prepared this time around and I’m sure we will be in the future going forward. It’s a really tough place to go, not just because of the conditions but because of the quality teams you’re playing against – excellent teams.

“It’s been good for us and hopefully when we go back out there we’ll be in a good place again.”

Ulster could face another trip back to South Africa for the semi-final and after last year when they lost in injury time to the Stormers in the last four, Burns is hoping for a top-two finish and a game at Kingspan Stadium.

“We want to play as many of our games at home as we can in front of our fans,” he said.

“We love playing here, it’s a place we generally play well at and [in] that Stormers game we lost it in the last minutes, or in overtime, and those are the sort of games that when you have the fans behind you could get you over the line.

“We’re desperate to get that home quarter-final and semi and it’s something we’ll push for.”

Ulster have won three of their last four games and Burns is hoping they can carry that form into Saturday night’s away league clash with Cardiff.

“In sport momentum is massive for confidence and it’s probably something we lacked in this last couple of months,” he said.

“We’ve been in and out and not able to back up performances, so hopefully we can get that right.

“It’s been incredibly frustrating and probably the toughest time since I’ve been at the club.”