David McCann grew up watching Ulster from the stands and terraces of Kingspan Stadium, the 23-year-old flanker is relishing the challenge of facing the defending league champions Munster at the Belfast venue on Friday night.
The former Ireland U19 and U20’s captain has established himself as a cornerstone of the Ulster back row, playing all but two minutes of the province’s three games so far this season.
Last season McCann made 10 starts including the European knockout game against Leinster and the URC quarter-final against Connacht.
McCann is coming to terms with playing for his boyhood club in big games.
“I wouldn’t pinch myself any more but the whole week you’re letting yourself build up to it and it’s exciting - there’s not much else you’d rather be doing than playing an interpro at home,” stated McCann.
“I have to keep it in mind because especially with people coming back from Ireland there are more people and more competition that if I don’t keep playing well, I’m not going to get picked and there’s bigger picture stuff.”
“The team playing well and we’re all building towards something hopefully at the end of the season.”
“It’s good playing well now but it’s not going to mean much if we don’t continue that form into the rest of the season towards play-offs.”
“Munster it’s going to be physical, it’s going to be competitive, and I think we should we showed at the weekend that we’re up for that, we’re ready for that challenge so it’s just about focusing on our game and then allowing ourselves to be in positions to be physical and challenge them on the gain line.”
Munster have their Ireland World Cup players available meaning McCann could be battling at the breakdown with the likes of Peter O’Mahony and Tadgh Beirne.
“That’s what you want, you want to be playing against the best in Ireland, the best in the world so hopefully they are playing from a personal point of view, and I get the chance to challenge myself.
At the other end of the experience scale Munster could unleash Brian Gleeson against Ulster, the No8 played hurling for Tipperary at U14 and U15 level before switching to rugby, he was part of the Ireland U20 side that won a grand slam and reached the U20 world cup final last season.
“It doesn’t matter who they put in, the job remains the same for me, he’s (Gleeson) exciting, I’ve watched him play and he’s a good player so again playing against him is something I would relish.
“It’s just doing my job, focusing on myself and in the moments if I get an opportunity.”
McCann has already got through a heavy workload: two full 80 minutes against Zebre and the Bulls was followed by being pressed into action from the bench within two minutes against Connacht last weekend after Reuben Crothers's early injury but he still feels fresh.
“That one was alright as it was so quick it was just after the warm-up.”
“I was devastated for Reuben, first carry on his debut and you don’t want to see that, so I was devastated for him.
“Then there wasn’t much time for me to think it was sort of (a case of) you finish the warm-up and then straight on, so it was almost like you’d actually started.”
“If every game was like last week, it would take a serious toll as it was very physical and there was a lot of defending on our behalf.”
“It’s only three games in and there was a long off-season so I’m feeling good, I’m feeling fine at the moment, so we’ll just take it game by game and see how it goes.”