Werner Kok was 'one guy we used to hate playing against' but now set for Ulster debut

“He has had a wee niggle but it wasn’t too bad and, hopefully, we’ll get to see a wee bit of him this weekend,” said Ulster backs coach Dan Soper. “He was one guy as a collective we used to hate playing against because he’s such an energy-giver to the team he’s playing with.

“He’s the sort of player the crowd gets behind and his actions get the crowd going and the crowd get the rest of the team going, so he was always difficult to play against, so really looking forward to seeing that energy, he’s just a relentless sort of player.”

And Soper has hailed the academy link-up with Queen’s University and hopes it will continue to produce a steady stream of talent for the province.

Last season Queen’s players Lorcan McLoughlin and Joe Hopes made their Ulster debuts while tight head prop Scott Wilson played 16 times for the province after breaking through.

In Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Benetton, Rory Telfer scored a try and won the ‘man-of-the-match’ award on his first Ulster start while there were debuts from the bench for hooker Henry Walker and loose forwards Charlie Irvine, James McKillop and Tom Brigg, plus replacement Jack Murphy will play his club rugby at the Dub.

“It’s really important (the link-up), if I think about what has even been happening this week...Derek Suffern (Queen’s coach) has been in training a lot over the summer and was in again on Tuesday and he’s very much aligned with what we’re trying to do and how we want to play the game,” said Soper. “He’s sharing ideas with us and us with him, so I think that’s really important...so when those guys get back to Queen’s they are on the same page, it’s not that they are going to be trying to replicate exactly what we’re doing but at least they understand why we’re doing the things we’re doing, and they can put their spin on it as well.

“The ability for those guys to play together and build combinations and play in an environment closely aligned with what we’re trying to do hopefully helps their transition into senior rugby and beyond."

Another Irish U20s player who has joined Queen’s and Ulster is centre Wilhelm de Klerk.

“Wilhelm is injured at the moment, but I enjoyed doing a bit of skill work with him over the last couple of weeks, he a good kid and I’m looking forward to seeing him back out there,” said Soper.

Despite using 30 players in the win over Benetton, which included three scrum halves and three out halves, Soper took plenty from the game.

“The way we’ve trained with the group that we have, guys should be able to drop in and out of a team because we have systems and processes about how we’re doing things and can they do that,” he said. “That is part of when you are starting out...if you get an opportunity, it might be 10 minutes off the bench, how well or how seamlessly can you adapt and fit into that group is quite often what gets you the next opportunity or not.

“It’s a bit of a challenge with the likes of half-backs, which tends to be specialist positions, midfielders or back field guys, back rowers can float between more than one position but we wanted to see from the half-backs could they manage the situation of the game.

"And I thought in the second half we came from behind and actually eventually got ourselves into a position after 20 minutes of the second half where we could go and win the game.

“The half-backs are the key drivers in how we’re going to do that, so I tip my hat to them.”