Ulster's Harry Sheridan hoping to enter frame for Ireland selection ahead of Autumn Internationals

Sheridan starts in the second row on Friday night for the URC clash with the Ospreys at Kingspan Stadium having played in two of Emerging Ireland’s three victories on their recent tour of South Africa.

The squad left for the Rainbow Nation with Easterby – who will be Ireland’s head coach during the autumn and Six Nations as Andy Farrell concentrates on the British Lions – enticing the players with the promise of senior caps being up for grabs in the four November games.

From the last Emerging Ireland tour in 2022 the likes of Joe McCarthy, Ciaran Frawley and Jack Crowley have became regulars in the senior matchday squad.

Sheridan said: “When that last tour was announced I was raging as I thought I might get selected for it, so I went away, looked at all my stuff and their games and thought what an opportunity that was for them.

“All those boys have done so well now – I think it’s 27 caps in that Emerging Ireland squad for the senior team in the last two years – so anything is possible, but all those things come as rewards off the back of consistent performances and that’s something I definitely need to nail down first.

”I don’t dare look anything past the Ospreys game this weekend if selected.

“I think those sorts of things are rewards after putting in consistent performances and I haven’t done that yet because I’ve only played 20 minutes so far this season for Ulster,” he added.

“I’d like to fire into this weekend full metal jacket and hopefully come out with the win.”

Sheridan said he learned a lot during his time in South Africa.

“The level of detail and responsibility on each player to be around the roles and learn the roles that you’re not meant to be covering [was among the key takeaways],” Sheridan said.

“Second row, back row for me there is a lot of variety there so you need to make sure you’re on top of it and within that the level of analysis we were doing, we’ve got so much opportunity over there to run ideas off each other. So you’re expected to have those conversations – it’s a given that you’re doing that, it’s not a bonus.

“The level of expectation is there, and I did my best to try and deliver on that.

“In Bloemfontein we didn’t get out and about much because of the aspect that we’re all in the team hotel and it was quite intimate in that way, and they were able to run ideas off people.

"We were on the laptops quite a lot doing our analysis day in, day out so you were able to have those conversations quite freely whereas you come in here, do your analysis and at the end of the day go home, have tea and come back in early the next morning.

“There, you were round each other all the time so you have those conversations all the time, run them off informally and stuff and that’s one thing about camp I’ll miss coming back here.”

Friday’s URC clash is a big game for Sheridan, who has only had one appearance off the bench so far this season for Ulster as they look to climb the table.

“Colossal yeah, it’s massive,” he said. “Last year we were maybe guilty of stop-starting, you know, go two steps forward, one step back and that’s not the team we want to be this year. So we want to be consistent all the way through, it’s all about us and that’s the way we’re attacking this game this weekend.”

Ulster: (1-8) Eric O’Sullivan, James McCormick, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor (C), Harry Sheridan, Cormac Izuchukwu, Marcus Rea, David McCann;

(15-9) Mike Lowry, Werner Kok, Ben Carson, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Aidan Morgan, John Cooney.

Replacements: Tadgh McElroy, Callum Reid, Scott Wilson, Kieran Treadwell and Matty Rea, Nathan Doak, James Humphreys, Jude Postlethwaite.