Alan ​O’Connor out to embrace Ulster test against ‘smart’ rivals Connacht

​The Western province beat Ulster 6-3 in 1960 and had to wait until 2018 to taste success again with a 22-15 victory.

Connacht’s last win in Belfast came with Peter Sullivan’s late try in the 2021 Rainbow Cup which gave Andy Friend’s side a 26-24 success.

The Galway-based side have had success against Ulster at the Sportsground and the Aviva Stadium in recent seasons.

Ulster enjoyed a bonus point win against Connacht on the opening night of the season back in September and followed up win a victory in Galway just before Christmas.

For lock Alan O’Connor, who will don the skipper’s armband in the continued absence of Iain Henderson, history will mean very little when the sides meet in tomorrow night’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final.

“We have a good record against them at home and, fair play to them, they’ve beaten us a few times over the past two or three years as they have really come out physically against us and got on top,” said O’Connor. “The physical battle that will get the job done and will let our attack and defence feed off that and set-piece feed off that.

“Connacht are a really physical side and pride themselves on their physicality...they have a good team culture buy-in so they will be playing as a unit.

"I think they have really smart players and they do fight for each other so it will be a challenge...but I’m looking forward to that challenge and we’ll be wanting to dominate them physically, as they would us, so we’ll see.”

O’Connor is keen to take the learnings from Ulster’s first knockout game of the season when they lost to Leinster in the last 16 of the Heineken Champions Cup to Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

“There are a couple of lessons in that and I thought they played really smart in the territory,” he said. “Our discipline let us down, probably because of the pressure game they put on us...so maybe we need to find ways to put pressure on other teams through territory, through set-piece, through our ability to hold onto the ball more...so, yeah, plenty in that.

“Our accuracy could maybe be a bit better in attack and coming into play-off rugby...like I was saying, you’ve got to be able to play in the right areas, you’ve got to be able to hold onto the ball, you’ve got to be able to exert pressure on the other team so that then they are the ones who make poor decisions or have to toe the line a bit on the discipline side.

“I think whenever we’re putting the work in throughout the week for me it’s like the accuracy and the execution, because I know the emotion will be there.

“You’re playing an inter-pro quarter-final at Ravenhill with a massive opportunity down the line so that’s motivation for everyone without even having to say it…it’s just the accuracy and the ability to make the right decisions in the right areas.”

Connacht’s lineout is ranked second best in the URC while Niall Murray has the most lineout steals with 16.

So O’Connor knows he and second row partner Kieran Treadwell will have to be at the top of their game.

“Me and ‘Treadsy’ get on really well as blokes and that helps, we talk a lot throughout the week about lineout plans and defence plans and I think ‘Treadsy’ round the pitch is going really well," said O’Connor. “His carries are class and his impact tackles are really good as well, so what he offers us is brilliant and we will see it on Friday.”