Stewart Moore out to build on his Ulster opportunities

The former Ballymena Academy centre made 12 starts scoring five tries along the way and is determined to make the most of his opportunities..

“Pre-season is a good way to showcase, I’ve bided my time for two years and I’ve got a good 12 starts there last year,” said Moore.

“I just want to take my opportunities and work hard in the background.

“We’ve had a spectacular pre-season and we’ve got almost three teams of 15 playing against each other, so it almost feels match-like.

“You know what you need to learn, especially when you have big names in there like McCloskey and Madigan, it’s really helping me learn, I try to learn from examples.

“I watch James Hume making defensive reads and I really enjoy doing that, and even learning from other positions.

“Obviously I can switch between 12 and 13, but learning from wingers and different kind of personnel how they like to attack.

“It’s a big learning curve and you’re really exposed to that, especially this season because it’s so rugby specific, which has been nice.”

Moore is a keen student of the game, and he studies other players that play in his midfield position to pick up tips.

“Robbie Henshaw obviously playing the Lions, and he had a really good season with Ireland, so I've been watching him,” he said.

“I've been watching David Havili a lot with the All Blacks - he's played at 10 for Crusaders and at 15 and now he's in the 12 jersey, so just having that personnel and style of play you can bring to the game.

“Robbie, it's quite similar as he can play 12 and 13 and he has played 15 in the past, so learning from especially the likes of that, luckily the Lions was on during the off-season so I could watch some games.”

Moore was at the 2014 European Cup quarter final when Saracens beat 14-man Ulster 17-15, and despite not having any of their Lions contingent tonight he is expecting a tough battle against Mark McCall’s men.

“Yeah I was in the stands at the time," he said.

"They won't have their internationals or Lions boys back in yet but they have some quality guys, like Ben Earl is coming back, and over lockdown I kept in touch with (Alex) Lozowski a bit just chatting in general.

“It'll be nice to see a familiar face and they still have an outstanding back line, and they have (Billy) Vunipola as well, who's an all-out No.8.

"I have watched Saracens a lot and they're great at manipulating defences, and defence has always been a big work on so it'll be a great test. Just glad to be back out at Kingspan again.”

Moore is also enjoying working with Dan Soper how took over as back coach from Dwayne Peel.

“I've known 'Sopes' since he was coach at RBAI and when he was skills coach I worked a lot with him, especially during my first year when I was injured,” he said

“I'd be quite close to him in that sense, and he's never been a coach you'd be too afraid to go to and ask questions, I'm sure he's sick of hearing questions.

“He's been really good, you understand what he wants. It's tough but you want to do it for him as well because he puts a lot of work into it and he likes those ideas you bring to him.”