There'll be few more motivated players than John Cooney when Ulster take on Connacht at the Kingspan Stadium this evening (7.35pm).
The BKT United Rugby Championship round eight clash comes just over six months since the Westerners ended Ulster’s season with a stunning and deserved 15-10 win at the quarter-final stage.
And former Connacht scrum-half Cooney has been stewing over the result since then and admitted that it took him a full three months to get the pain of defeat out of his system.
Having missed out on the return fixture earlier this season, which Connacht edged 22-20, the 33-year-old can’t wait to take on his former club.
"This game means more to us because of what they did in the quarter-final," he said.
"It's the most disappointing result I've ever had for Ulster.
"It bugged me for about three months in the summer, until the point to where I couldn't wait to get back.
"I missed the last game against them in Galway, from playing with them it's always a proper game.
"They like to push me, they like to talk to me, and call me all sorts of stuff...Bundee Aki in particular, so I look forward to these games."
While Pete Wilkins’ side come into the game on the back of four straight losses, the hosts are on an upward curve after last weekend’s impressive 31-15 win over Top14 leaders Racing 92 in the Champions Cup.
Cooney, capped 11 times by Ireland, admitted it was one of his most enjoyable games. He kicked four conversions (above) and a penalty and got a charge down on a Racing conversion attempt.
"I think last week I led more, sometimes I try to concentrate on myself but I tried to bring people along with me collectively," he said.
"I tried to pull people with me and I tried to get people going.
"At half time we came out really keen to come out and score. Energy is infectious, I feel I can drive people and I tried to lead by example."
Connacht are eighth in the URC table, one place behind Ulster, and have conceded 173 points in their last four outings, including 25 tries.
Wilkins, whose side opened up the season with three wins from three, says he's well aware improvement is required.
"It's the nature of these long URC and Champions Cup seasons, you'll have patches where you have good momentum and you're winning games and others where you're not winning games," said the Englishman, who’s in his first year in charge.
"It's not an easy justification of losing, everyone is desperate to win and desperately disappointed when they don't, but ultimately what you end up with at the end of the season is that body of work.
"You've got to keep getting better and that's us as coaches, not just as players, but us as a whole programme. If you do that then you'll get the points across the season that will get you involved in knockout rugby.
"So there's certainly no panic from our end, I think everyone realises that bigger context and we also realise the challenges we've had, from Bulls at Loftus into a short week and then Leinster, into a star-studded Bordeaux team and then Saracens away.
"We would have liked to have done much, much better through those four games but at the same time they're pretty decent opposition. We're really aware of the things we need to do better, but the crucial thing is to keep improving."
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