Ulster Rugby star Stewart Moore hoping new attacking brand can help bring the best out of him

Utility back Stewart Moore is hoping that the new artificial surface at Kingspan Stadium and a shift from a forward-orientated power game plan to a fast, attacking philosophy will benefit him.

Before Ulster face the Bulls on their new home pitch, they first must negotiate the United Rugby Championship opener in Parma against Zebre and Moore is hoping all the work done in an elongated pre-season due to the World Cup will come to the fore in Italy.

"I don’t suppose much has changed in terms of shape or anything, it’s just more of a mindset that we maybe always did play within ourselves so now we’ve had almost a licence and we’ve been playing more,” he explained. “Part of our pre-season was a lot of conditioning games where we were able to bring that into our game on the rugby side of things, so you are able to do both.

“It takes a lot of fitness, but it’s definitely a lot quicker in terms of the backs.

"We’re looking to play a lot more and luckily we’ve got a pitch to do that as well.

“Our pre-season has helped us a lot with that – it’s a lot quicker and it’s often going to have to be a lot of unstructured play, which you see some of the best teams in the world do.

"They are unstructured, they’re good at it and they keep the ball alive a lot of the time.

“That’s what we’re after and sometimes it’s not even thinking, it’s just doing, seeing the space and taking it.”

Moore is ready for the campaign to finally kick-off after putting the hard yards in during a long pre-season.

“As the pre-season was quite long, I was working on the strength and conditioning side of things and the fitness side when it started,” he said. “Then coming towards the rugby and pre-season games, it was just hand speed and foot speed.

"We’re looking to play a little bit more and that allows the defence to come and get us a bit more, so just challenging yourself with hand and foot speed was the big thing for us in finding edges.

“Coming in it was hard to keep the intensity high, but also the boredom and you don’t want to be coming into the season not feeling as fresh as you want to be, so they worked it really nicely this season.

“It was a very enjoyable pre-season but I’m glad to see the back of it.”

Moore made 20 appearances last season, including 12 starts, with the utility back interchanging between full-back, centre and wing.

Going into the new campaign, he wants to nail down a regular starting position.

“It used to be I was happy to get in the 23, but now I need to step up a wee bit,” he added. “I suppose it’s not that I’m not happy being a bencher or utility, but I want to start – obviously everyone does.

"There is a good competitive nature within the squad so you are always going to have that wherever you are.

“My time is now and I want to nail a spot.”