Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey believes he has been partnering one of the most talented No13s in world rugby this season.
The Bangor Bulldozer and James Hume, who has been capped three times by Ireland, have cemented their status as Dan McFarland’s preferred midfield pairing.
And McCloskey, who has shone in the No12 shirt for Ulster for many seasons and scored in his last outing against the Sharks a fortnight ago, rates his 23-year-old teammate highly.
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Asked about his dynamic partnership with Hume, the 29-year-old said: “It’s not something we have overly thought about or overly worked on.
“I think spending time together in training and time together playing obviously helps because you get a feel for each other’s styles.
“I think we do blend quite well together as a partnership, just the things we do, but obviously James is also a great player.
“At times this year I’d say he has been one of the best No13s in the world and he’s still playing some great stuff, so he’s easy to play with.
“When a guy’s like that, you just give him the ball and get out of his way. That’s what it has felt like for me and hopefully he feels that I have helped him along as well.”
McCloskey and Hume are likely to be two of the first names on McFarland’s team sheet ahead of tomorrow’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final with Munster in Belfast.
Munster have beaten their northern rivals twice already this season, including a 24-17 win at the Kingspan in April, their only URC home loss of the campaign so far.
But McCloskey is reading nothing into past results with a semi-final against either Edinburgh or the Stormers awaiting the winners next weekend.
“If you were doing the odds on it, the odds on them beating us three times in a row would be quite low,” he said. “We’re two evenly matched sides and the games have been tight.
“Hopefully us being at home will help push us over the edge. We’ve played some good stuff over the last couple of weeks and hopefully we can carry that on.”
Asked if Ulster have the belief to go on and win the URC title - and end a 16-year wait for silverware - McCloskey said: “This is a better team than previous years and those teams went close to winning things.
“We have beaten Clermont twice and Leinster twice this season, even though it was a weakened team a couple of times, but on our day we have been very good. I feel we can turn it on for three weeks in a row.”
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