Ulster’s Harry Sheridan hoping to put his own Leinster blues behind him

Harry Sheridan came off the bench for Ulster against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in the Champions Cup round of 16 clash last season.

Things didn’t go well for Sheridan personally, as he was yellow carded, or for Ulster as a team it was the eighth time in 13 years they’d lost to their Dublin-based rivals in a big knockout tie.

That was only Sheridan’s eighth appearance for the province, this season he has featured 18 times, starting in half those games and as he makes another trip to the Aviva Stadium for the United Rugby Championship quarter-final against Leinster, he is hoping it’s a case of ‘a year old, a year wiser.’

“Looking at that game when I was involved personally it was a shock for me because at Christmas time last year, I didn’t think I’d be in the Aviva playing against Leinster,” stated Sheridan.

“This year I have put in the work, and I like to think I have my place in this team as a reward for putting in the hard work in training and putting in the hard work in matches.”

“Certainly, this time I have been there, and a lot of this team has been there, we know what we did wrong, and we are looking to attack it this week and get a better result.”

“There was a lot of emotion in that game, you just want to get off the bench and hit someone that’s the main thing, I obviously got that wrong and I’ll try to make sure I won’t do that this time.”

“It is certainly something you review with the D (defence) coaches at the time and say what led to this decision and what put you into that position where you were vulnerable, and you just have to make sure that it doesn’t happen again through all these different things and all these different factors in play so hopefully it won’t happen again.”

While the 22-year-old Trinity University student has played less than 30 games for Ulster tomorrow will be the fourth knockout tie he’s been involved in, the previous three have all been in Europe and it has been a stiff learning process.

“Probably that every minute counts and there is no switching off whatsoever, those minutes where we get caught in games and we are under the posts and say we can’t let that happen again there is no opportunity and that is the difference between winning and losing the game.”

“It will be a tight game regardless, there is no opportunity especially against Leinster to switch off.”

While Ulster can take confidence from beating Leinster twice in the league this season Sheridan realises it will count for nothing come 5pm Saturday as Leo Cullen’s side are likely to be a full strength.

“You can take nothing for granted, this Leinster team is going to be completely different from the side that faced us a couple of weeks ago here and since then they have lost to Toulouse in the Champions Cup final and that is going to be stinging them properly so they will be highly motivated but so are we.”

“Leinster are always going to be special they are the biggest province in Ireland at the moment, there is a lot of noise around what they can and can’t do, all I’m focused on, and all the team is focused on is how can we upset them, we’ve done it twice this season.”

“They’ll be adapting to us as much as we’ll be adapting to them, it will be a real tactical battle as much as an emotional battle out there on Saturday.”

“In terms of baggage I have only been involved in one game against Leinster so far the track record is not in our favour especially in recent times.”