After a fortnight in New Zealand, Ulster fullback, Jared Payne is back in Belfast and looking forward to returning to action against Ospreys on Friday night:
“It was great to be home, to give the body a break after a tough few weeks”, says Payne. It’s always great to get home to catch up with mum and dad and friends at the beach. When you get to this stage, half way through the season the body is a bit banged up and mentally you are fried, as its constant training and match play week in, week out. I am feeling refreshed now and am ready to get back into it.”
For many fans, the win over Leicester Tigers is still cause for celebration. However, for Payne that’s now in the past and it’s back to business:
”With rugby you can’t get caught up on your achievements in the past”, he says. You need to focus on the team ahead so despite a great result at Welford Road it is not something that we can dwell on. We had time before the break to celebrate that game, we were proud of what we achieved and it’s great to bring the quarter final home to Ravenhill in front of our home fans.
"But it’s a new week and a new team and it’s time to refocus, we have the opportunity to use this next phase of Rabo games as good preparation for the quarter final but league wins are also important. The Rabo has its only unique challenges so we will be taking it week by week, assessing the competition and trying to improve our game. If we get into the top four of the Rabo then once the time comes for the quarter final the team will be feeling confident.”
And what of this week’s opponents – Ospreys?
“We have been looking a lot at Ospreys this week and what they have to offer, what their strengths and weaknesses are, where we need to attack and what we need to shut down," Payne says. "They are a good team, they bring a lot of line speed and they are a physical side so it’s going to be tough come Friday night. Hopefully with the squad we have and everyone getting a rest during the break we will be able to get the win - everyone is feeling confident.”
With Jared Payne in the team they have good reason to feel confident.