Ulster's Billy Burns driven to reach new heights in Europe as Sale await in Champions Cup opener

The Ireland out-half had never experienced playing in Europe’s premier competition until he swapped Gloucester for the Kingspan Stadium.

After a disappointing exit at the hands of Toulouse in last season’s renewal at the round 16, Ulster start their campaign to emulate the feats of 1999 against Sale at the AJ Bell Stadium on Sunday at lunchtime.

Burns has racked up 21 appearances in the Champions Cup and is looking forward to another season in Europe.

“I'd never played Champions Cup rugby before coming here and it didn't take me long to realise how special a competition it is, how much the fans love it, how much the club loves it,” Burns said.

“It's little things like going out to training and the balls are different, there's a different vibe to it.

“It's a competition that we've done well in but feel we could have done more. It's the Champions League of rugby, it's the best of Europe and now South Africa going head-to-head.

“That's where you want to challenge yourself and we're really excited. We'll get over to Manchester and hopefully put in a good performance.”

Burn’s is backing Ulster’s young backline to light up the tournament like they did by winning all four pool games last season.

“It's almost like I look back to Northampton away last year: the backline was ‘Doaky’, myself, Stu Moore, James Hume, Ethan McIlroy and Rob Baloucoune (and Mike Lowry) – these are all young lads who we would class as young lads, but they've played Champions Cup already.

“It took me until 26 to play in a Champions Cup game. They've probably not played that many games than me at this level.

“But they're incredible professionals. I've never seen such willingness and hunger to learn after games,” he added.

“They're a humble group. I was once that person. When you're young and you're getting a lot of good press, it's easy to go to your head but those boys are grounded and they love playing rugby.

“They've earned the right to have the experience they already had. If I can help them then I will, but I need them to help me too.”

Burns has experience of playing Sale in their own back yard but under Alex Sanderson the northwest club have transformed from when he was playing in the Premiership.

“They're a completely different team to when I played them five or six years ago,” he said.

"I played at the AJ Bell a couple of times, it was always a very physical game – good up front and they've probably got even better in that area.

“They have a lot of South Africans and we know that they're typically good at the set-piece.

“When I played Sale, being up north, they like that Rugby League style which is [keeping] a really good shape, threats at the line, having to double tackle.”