ULSTER PROP MARTY  Moore believes the northern province should be relishing the opportunity to show they are a better team than they have looked of late.

Ulster have lost five of their last eight games in all competitions, a run that saw them knocked out of the Champions Cup at the pool stage.

In their January European double-header, they conceded 95 points combined against Toulouse and Harlequins with the latter seeing them ship a particularly worrisome set of scores.

Returning to URC action against the Ospreys in Swansea on Sunday, Moore admits there were times when the almost month-long wait to get back on the field was tough to swallow.

“Initially it was tough the last couple of weeks without a game to go and rectify things or make things right,” admitted the tighthead.

“There was that challenge but we’ve put in a good basis of work over the last few weeks to put us on the best foot for this weekend.

“We had some pretty hard conversations amongst ourselves and with coaches in the days following those performances.

“It is what it is at this stage. There’s no point in us going on about it too much more when we have this game to look forward to.

“It’s definitely a head-scratcher. You never expect to go out and leave that sort of performance on the field.

“As a professional, it’s not something you can take a lot from. The basics let us down in that regard.

“I can only speak for myself but it’s not that I feel a lack of confidence. I feel angry that that might be the perception of me.

“I look forward to grasping the opportunity to right that.

“Maybe some guys are different and might need a bit of boosting up during the week.

“We’ll do that where it’s needed.

“But for me, I’m not happy with myself and the only way to right that is by coming out this weekend.

“Things change very quickly. We were one of the on-form teams and then we’ve two bad games and it changes things.

“You can forget the level of performances we put in weeks prior to that. I don’t think it’ll take much for us to go out and put on a performance where we’re back on a level that we know we should be.”

With Tom O’Toole – along with Stuart McCloskey -  retained by the national set-up in this Six Nations down week, Moore is making just his second start of the season in Swansea.

Having sustained a serious knee injury against Munster on New Year’s Day 2023, it’s been a long road back for former Leinster and Wasps man who admits getting back onto the field was not the last hurdle to clear.

“I think it took me longer to get back to a level that I’m comfortable with than maybe I anticipated,” he said.

“Medically I was fit and ready to go. I was on the field. But it was probably another six weeks of playing before I felt good in myself and that I was playing at a level that I would recognise as being as good as what I can do.

“Not quite as long as 10 or 11 months thankfully, but there was definitely a period where you’re finding your feet again.

“It’s not even the mobility because that’s covered in the rehab but it’s getting used to getting up and hitting people again.

“That’s the biggest task when you’re coming back from an injury like that where you’ve been safeguarded from the collisions right to the end.

“Even early on, you can be changing direction and doing a lot of work, but the physical contact is the very last thing to get checked off the list.

“So it’s the hardest thing to get used to again. Hopefully it won’t be an issue now.

“I feel I’m pretty much there at the minute, I’m at a level of operating that I’m happy with, not thinking about the knee.”