Tom Stewart relishing chance for first European start for Ulster in must-win Champions Cup clash with La Rochelle

Stewart was voted the Schools’ Player of the year in 2019 and is the latest product of Belfast Royal Academy, whose alumni include British and Irish Lions Jack Kyle and Iain Henderson.

Ulster skipper Henderson returns from injury to face La Rochelle and Stewart is looking forward to packing down in the scrum with the Irish second row.

“I think the first time I watched him was when I was at primary school and he was in the Schools’ Cup final,” he said.

"They had a good year and coming up through they would always refer back to ‘Hendy’, and so it’s always been nice watching ‘Hendy’ and knowing that you have that BRA connection there.

“He’s been really good to me coming up through – he’s good to everyone coming up through – but it’s been nice to have someone who’s come from Ben Madigan and BRA as well.”

Ulster’s Champions Cup hopes could all but be over if they lose to Ronan O’Gara’s team, but Stewart isn’t feeling the pressure.

“Things move really quickly and it’s hard to adapt to that sometimes, but I’m really excited as a young player,” he said.

"I don’t know if it’s a bit of naivety but you always have a bit more hunger and [are] a bit more excitable, so and I’m really looking forward to this week.

“I’m not trying to worry too much about [playing in my] first European at home. It’s another game at the end of the day, another week where I can get better during the week, and I can play against more experienced players,” added Stewart.

“Every opportunity is a learning opportunity for me – I’m looking forward to it.”

Despite the Leinster and Sale defeats, Stewart feels Ulster don’t need to reinvent the wheel to beat La Rochelle.

“I don’t think we have drastic changes to turn around, I think it’s just little things that we can tidy up and things can come our way, and a win this weekend would be massive.

“La Rochelle are European champions and these are the teams we want to be challenging and pitting ourselves against, and we want to play the Leinsters and La Rochelles all the time; they are the opponents we need to face and [it is] how we get better.

“We had a big penalty count (against Sale) so we have to focus on our discipline and a few missed tackles, basics and stuff that we normally are good at. I think everyone knows what they need to do.

“We hold each other accountable and we hold ourselves accountable more than anything, so nobody needs to delve into it too much – they know what they need to do and they can get better at it,” he added.

“There was a big thing attitude-wise on Sunday but a lot of technical things as well; it was one of those days there was a bit of everything.

“I think individually everyone has looked at it themselves and they knew technically-wise they got things wrong, and that falls into attitude off the back of that.”