Ulster's top tackler Alan O’Connor looking forward to Munster test

He may be only 24, but Ulster’s Dublin-born lock Alan O’Connor already looks a little grizzled. 

One would imagine he will be a little more grizzled when he leaves Thomond Park tomorrow afternoon when a typically-fired up Munster side will attempt to spoil fifth-placed Ulster’s hopes of making the Guinness Pro12 play-offs.

O’Connor came from Leinster to the Ulster Academy nearly five years ago, and after a breakthrough season last year, he’s beginning to motor again after injuries.

“I took two concussions in a month and a half, so I had to be referred to some neurologist in Dublin, I saw him for a while and he advised me to take an eight-week break but everything has come back now and it is all good. The last two years I have been injured in the latter part of the season as well, last year it was a shoulder injury and the year before that it was a hip injury,” said O’Connor, Ulster’s top tackler this season and who has an inkling of what’s in store for him tomorrow.

“I went down there at Christmas time three or four years ago, and we didn’t come out on top, not a good experience. However, a few boys went down in 2014 with a supposedly half-strength team and turned them over. So it is definitely doable. It’s about manning up.

“The Inter-pros are the ones you really want to play in because you know these guys since you were a young fellow competing at under-age level. So I look forward lining out against a few of those lads and see what it brings,” said O’Connor who rates the Munster pack.

“You have to man up to them or they will take you for a walk. They are a good all-round pack, they have good ball carriers, good set-piece and we just have to beat them at what they are good at and what we are good at, we have to make sure we’re on the gain-line in attack and defence. Whatever team they put out they will be buzzing and it will be a tough one,” said O’Connor, whose big hits have maybe helped with his injuries. “Maybe! But tackling is something I work on a lot. I have been doing extra stuff after training and trying also to work hard in the set-piece, win line-out ball and get the combinations going. I’ll do what is ever required, I’ll hit rucks all day.”

That will be needed come tomorrow, more than he realises.