Ulster's Tom Stewart revelling in breakthrough season

It has been quite the breakthrough season for the 22-year-old hooker, who is top scorer in the URC with 13 touchdowns, while Stewart has also crossed the whitewash once in Europe.

He was on the cusp of Ireland’s Grand Slam and if Dan Sheehan not recovered from injury, Stewart would have won his first cap against England in the last game of the Six Nations.

Stewart is also preparing for his first knockout game as Ulster travel to Dublin to face Leinster in the last 16 of the Champions Cup.

“I think I have scored more tries this season than I have in my entire life,” said Stewart after his three scores against the Bulls.

“It was an easy hat-trick and I’m getting a bit of stick from the boys about it! I’m more than happy if the boys do the work up front and I just dot the ball down at the back of the maul, so it is good.

“I’m very happy and more happy to be back playing at Kingspan, it has been a long season for us with a lot of away games, it’s good to get the win and happy to be back home.”

Ireland had lost Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher against Scotland and Andy Farrell brought Stewart into camp for the final week of the Six Nations.

“I was actually sat in the pub watching it with my girlfriend and the two hookers went down and I was like ‘oh oh’. Dan obviously pulled through and he had a stormer and I was more than happy for him he had a great tournament.

“There was a wee bit of a sweat, but I was happy to be down there.

“Being down in Ireland camp was pretty special, especially for the Grand Slam – you only get to experience a home Grand Slam every now and again,” he added.

“It was unbelievable to be down there and see the systems, soak up whatever I can and bring it back into Ulster.”

“Dan and Ronan boys are pretty good at getting me up to speed because I was back and forth so they were helpful with calls and talking around things.”

Stewart is profiting from the potency of the Ulster maul but knows if the side are to topple Leinster they will need more strings to their bow.

“Roddy (Grant) is very good, and we are very detailed around it, the boys are very good and very accountable for it,” he said.

“We know the stuff we need to do. We had a blip in the middle of the season but we knew we could rely on our maul and we knew the strength it has.

“It is always good to have that in the locker. We like to have hammers and it is about building more hammers to take on teams at the business end of the season. People will obviously look at our maul now, so we’ll need other things to strike with,” Stewart added.

“We know the threats Leinster pose, they are a very good side and have a lot of internationals coming back from Ireland, so they will be running high.”