Rúaidhrí O'Connor

I remember talking to a Connacht player in a week of a Challenge Cup quarterfinal a couple of years ago.

And I did a really good interview with him.

And at the end of the interview, I said, so how do you fix for the weekend?

And he goes, we're going to lose.

No one here cares about this thing.

It's the Challenge Cup.

You can't win the URC.

and this is the one thing you could get to a final have a big day out for your friends your family for your fans and I think there's a danger that certainly with Munster they could turn their nose up at this because of their Champions Cup pedigree and I think that would be a real mistake for them to do because it's you still get a chance to play at the San Mames you still get a chance for like the Red Army will still mobilise I'm sure for Exeter into potentially another away game in the quarter final into it because they can't be at home I think in the knockouts unless they get La Rochelle I'm not sure how that works but

but they um you know roge against munster in a challenge cup semi-final that'll have some glamour to it if they can get there an ulster munster game wow that'd be that'd be spicy we can't turn our nose up at this tournament it's where they're at now but they got to show that they're one of the best teams in it and you know they're only sixth in the urc there is a champions cup spot on offer in this tournament as well so if things don't go well in the urc this is a failsafe for getting back into the champions cup but

Right now, you'd say Ulster are better contenders given the way they're playing, albeit they haven't had to play teams like Kast or Toulon in recent weeks or Bath.

You know, it was a tough pull for Ulster.

It looked like a tough pull from the outset.

They've made it look tougher than probably we realised.

Yeah, but there's still loads to play for, loads to play for.

And there's time now, there's a bit of breathing space in the ORC for them to go back to basics.

But they need to start winning in that tournament as well because they need to get top eight.

But there's lots, I think the better ground suits them towards the end of the season.

Like they've had really good runs in the ORC the last couple of years towards the end.

on their round three even last year they got to the semi-final under a kind of hybrid coaching ticket so there's lots for them to fix it's not but it's just a big dent in their armour once they're a Champions Cup team they pride themselves on it and when there's four teams going through from each pool it's quite humiliating to get knocked out at this stage for a team no less with La Rochelle and you can hear it in Roger's comments if you pride yourself being in a Champions Cup team you want to be in that last 16

They love their rugby.