However, that excitement translated into something of an over-exuberance when he came on. With Ulster chasing the game with just over 10 minutes to go, the lock went in too high on Ross Byrne and spent nearly the rest of the game back on the touchline having been given a yellow card.

“There was a lot of emotion in that game, you just want to get off the bench and hit someone, that’s the main thing,” reflects Sheridan of the 30-15 defeat.

“I obviously got that wrong and I’ll try to make sure I won’t do that this time.”

He’s grown since then, as have Ulster, although both have had a turbulent path to this point where they are preparing for a United Rugby Championship Quarter-Final back at the Aviva Stadium against their Dublin rivals on Saturday (5pm).

While much has been made of Ulster’s travails, the subsequent sacking of Dan McFarland and their resurgence, Sheridan has similarly had to bide his time to return to where he wants to be.

One of those seemingly frozen out under the former regime, the loose-forward may have featured in eight of their opening 14 games of the campaign but was selected to start in only three of them despite finishing last season strongly.

Rather than kicking on into his sophomore season at Ravenhill, he had to try and do what he could in 10-minute cameos.

But since Richie Murphy took over, Sheridan has been front and centre and has rewarded the head coach’s trust.

He’s been involved in all 10 of the Bray man’s games thus far, six of which have been starts, and it seems likely that number will rise to seven on Saturday.

“After last season I was just looking to build more game time and try and earn my stripes under Dan McFarland but obviously that didn’t work out,” explains the former Sullivan Upper star.

“Then Richie Murphy came in, someone that I know and have a lot of trust in, and I think that has been paid back to me in match minutes received. I’m just looking to deliver now on my side of things and back up that faith that he has put in me.

“This year I have put in the work and I like to think I have my place in this team as a reward for putting in the hard work in training and putting in the hard work in matches.”

Even though he boasts 26 caps for his province, at the age of 22 Sheridan is still an inexperienced operator in the grand scheme of things, and this being just his fourth exposure to knockout rugby reflects that even further.

With the likes of Cormac Izuchukwu (24), Jude Postlethwaite (22) and Scott Wilson (21) also due to feature heavily in tomorrow’s knockout tie, it will be an inexperienced squad that Ulster field, but Sheridan is confident that isn’t a bad thing.

“The younger squad that we have at the moment, I don’t think anybody is giving us a chance. The last couple of games we hope we have proved people wrong,” he adds.

“This weekend is potentially the biggest opportunity to do that and show the trajectory that we have.

“With Richie at the helm I definitely believe we can go places and this could be the start of that.

“If we can sort our stuff out on Saturday we’ll go a long way to proving that to everyone.”