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Steven Crawford

James Hume has perfect inspiration for crucial URC quarter-final clash

James Hume doesn't have to think back too far for inspiration ahead of tonight's United Rugby Championship quarter-final against Connacht.

The centre produced a devastating display at the same stage last season as Ulster blew away Munster 36-17 at Kingspan.

Hume is quick to point to that night last June as "one of his best" in an Ulster shirt, and has been doing all he can to produce a repeat performance.

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"Thinking back to the Munster quarter-final last year, it was one of the most memorable games I've played in both performance-wise and the crowd," he said.

"It was one of those days when everything clicked - three try assists and a try, I don't think you can get much better.

"I've been trying to think how I approached that game because it was obviously one of the best performances.

"I felt so confident and I've been trying to piece together the things I did leading up to that game that made me feel so comfortable and what my mindset was.

"I've been trying to work on that and hopefully I can pull it out again and then we can push into the latter stages."

The quarter-final victory over Munster set up a trip to the Stormers in the last four.

Ulster suffered last-gasp agony on South African soil 11 months ago, but Hume knows they will have advantage this year having secured second place in the regular season.

"I didn't really think about how big home advantage is until that quarter-final last year," he said.

"Who knows if we had finished second and played Stormers at home in the semi-final we maybe could have pipped them.

"It's hard travelling to South Africa when they have a whole stadium behind them.

"Imagine if we had had a whole stadium behind us here how different it would have been."

Getting to the final and securing silverware would mean so much to the 24-year-old and his teammates.

"It would be priceless to be honest," said Hume.

"This is my home province and I wouldn't want to play anywhere else.

"To win silverware here at the age of 24 with so many years to go against such quality teams would be perfect. I've full belief that we can as well.

"When we lined out against Leinster in the Heineken Cup our physicality went up tenfold, so why can't we bring it out again in the quarter-finals?

"That's the mindset we need to have, like when we are playing in those massive European occasions.

"Hopefully we can really bring that into this home quarter-final."

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