'A sideshow for my wife' - Murphy on sons facing each other

Ben Murphy (left) will welcome dad Richie and younger brother Jack to Connacht's Sportsground on Saturday

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy says he is "very proud" of his sons Ben and Jack as they prepare to potentially face each other for the first time in senior rugby on Saturday.

Ben Murphy and Connacht will welcome dad and younger brother to the Sportsground in Galway for Saturday's United Rugby Championship encounter.

The Connacht scrum-half, 23, has made eight appearances for the Westerners since joining from Leinster in the summer, while 20-year-old Jack earned his Ulster debut in last week's loss to Munster.

"It's more of a sideshow for my wife," said a smiling Richie Murphy, who faced Ben in October when Ulster beat Connacht in Belfast.

"She's the one that has to deal with all three of us. I definitely don't envy her position at the moment."

Murphy, whose side have suffered five straight defeats, added: "I haven't been a very happy husband over the last couple of weeks with not getting those victories that you're talking about.

"In that, you've got Jack at 20 years of age, coming in and making his senior debut and Ben down in Galway. This time last year, the four of us were sitting in Bray: Ben was at Leinster, Jack was getting ready for the Irish [Under]-20s, our whole lives have changed very quickly.

"But we're very proud of the two lads, they work very hard at their craft and we'll see what happens at the weekend I suppose."

'I'm probably harder on Jack'

After Richie's appointment as Ulster boss earlier this year, Jack left the Leinster academy to follow his father to Belfast and made his first appearance on Friday when he replaced the injured Stuart McCloskey.

During the Munster game, Jack kicked to the corner instead of going for goal and potentially earning Ulster a draw in a game they ultimately lost 22-19.

"Jack, unfortunately for him, I'm probably more hard on him because he's right here in front of my face," added Murphy.

"It's difficult for both of us. It's difficult to pick your son at 20 years of age but difficult for him because of the last couple of weeks in training, he'd been doing really well and hadn't been getting picked.

"He came on, I think James [Humphreys] has done well in the cameos he's had. Aidan [Morgan] has started all of our games up to this point.

"We're in a situation where we have three young 10s and we want to make sure we get the best out of the three of them."

While Ulster are without injured centre Stuart McCloskey for Saturday's game, Ireland trio Cormac Izuchukwu, Nick Timoney and Iain Henderson have all resumed team training ahead of Saturday's game.

Ulster sit 11th in the URC table, one place below Connacht with both sides having won only three of eight games. UIster let slip a 20-3 lead on their last trip to Galway as Connacht stormed back to win 22-20.