Ulster's Harry Sheridan drawing on experience of playing against Springbok legend Eben Eztebeth

Standing at just under 6ft 9, Eztebeth has won two World Cups, three Rugby Championships and helped to defeat the British and Irish Lions in 2021 with South Africa while being capped 136 times by his country.

Domestically, he helped the Sharks win the European Challenge Cup two seasons ago.

Sheridan is at the other end of the career spectrum but more than held his own against the Springbok enforcer in the Shark Tank with an early lineout steal and a rip in open play.

He said: “Thinking about before the game, I think I was meant to play against Eztebeth in the Sharks game last year, but he didn't end up playing last minute.

“That was sort of something I was miffed by, because obviously he's one of the best second rows of all time, so you obviously want to measure yourself up against those types of players, and to play against him this time, it was a bit of a privilege.

“Against all those Springboks, there's about 23 lads on the opposition team, and you're going, ‘whoa, these guys are proper’.

“Definitely, I thoroughly enjoyed last week, but more looking forward to this week.

“Obviously Eztebeth is class in the lineout – he's one of the best in that sort of win-the-ball-back perspective – so there's stuff that we've seen in and around his game.

“I've watched quite a lot of footage on him, and the guys like him, and there's so much you can learn from just watching, but playing against him as well during the game, you can see some of the things that they do that you wouldn't catch up video, but it's quite good.”

Sheridan didn’t get a chance to speak to his opposite number after the game.

“No, everyone's just going about their business after the game, to be honest,” he added. “We were probably just keeping to ourselves, we were quite happy within the team to chat to each other and celebrate the win, but I'm sure those lads are all doing their own bits as well within their team.”

The Ulster lock has put his rich vein of form at the start of the season down to a change in approach.

“It's definitely about having a review process, I think last year maybe sort of flew through things willy-nilly and didn't really lock down,” Sheridan said.

“Maybe one of these things went wrong, so I just dismissed them; this year I've been very particular about my strengths and weaknesses and what I want to do after each game to review them.”

Sheridan has switched between the second row and the backrow during his 44 Ulster caps but he is still happy to play anywhere he is selected.

“I'd play anywhere that I get on to the team, first of all, so it doesn't make any difference to me, although I do enjoy the added responsibility that comes with the line-out,” he said.

“There are certain things that we need to do to deliver for the team, so from that perspective, I do really enjoy it, but honestly, I'd play scrum half if it meant that I could get on to the pitch.”