Ulster head coach Dan McFarland praised Tom Stewart’s progress this summer season after the younger hooker was named man of the match when making his first begin for the province in final evening’s season-opening 36-10 win over Connacht.
The 21-year-old scored one attempt to was inches from one other in a efficiency that drew an ovation from the group when he made his exit halfway via the second half.
Now hoping to place an injury-interrupted run behind him, McFarland says he's a participant with a “excessive ceiling”.
“He’s been sensible in pre-season,” mentioned the top coach after the 36-10, five-try win.
“It’s the primary time shortly that he’s had an prolonged interval of coaching.
“He’s good, he’s robust and he’s explosive. If he carries on the best way he's growing and studying, he’ll change into a extremely good participant.
“He’s in no way the completed article, he’s acquired to maintain going, preserve growing bodily and he’s acquired to maintain growing his skill-set however his ceiling is clearly excessive.”
Whereas the strong-running off the bottom of Ulster mauls caught the attention, Stewart performed his half in a powerful scrummaging efficiency too that helped lay the platform for the five-pointer.
“They did have Heff (Dave Heffernan) within the front-row in order that was a extremely good expertise for Tom Stewart to play in opposition to,” added McFarland.
“Peter Dooley is an efficient scrummager, Jack Aungier most likely not as skilled however we’ve acquired Marty (Moore) in there.
“They did an excellent job on Marty early however he acquired a grasp of what was happening, labored it out for himself.
“He was speaking to the blokes at half-time about that after which he did what Marty does.
“Marty is without doubt one of the high scrummagers round in Eire. We’d count on him to do this.”
Ulster shall be again in motion away to the Scarlets subsequent Saturday, with out 4 of their 5 try-scorers as Stewart, Nathan Doak, Callum Reid and Stewart Moore are all among the many nine-strong group with Rising Eire certain for South Africa.
They do, nevertheless, count on to have their match senior internationals who took half in the summertime tour of New Zealand again in harness for the journey to Wales.