FOR BOTH Tom Court and Ulster, the next few weeks (with the Six Nations opener away to Italy less than a month away) could make or break their seasons. And he candidly admits both he and Ulster need to up their game accordingly.

No one should be more recharged by the festive period than Court. Although he played the second half of Ulster’s defeat to Munster, he availed of a pre-Christmas week off to spend a restorative seven days in the Lanzarote sunshine with his wife and daughter.

“Last year they gave a few of the guys a week off leading up to Christmas but this year, with all the snow, was the first year I needed a bit of sun and a little bit of R & R time out of town. You’re back with your head in the game now and ready to go for the rest of the season.”

Coach Brian McLaughlin, in taking the calculated gamble of resting four of his Springboks and others, in addition to the sidelined Andrew Trimble and Stephen Ferris, will hope to begin seeing the benefits of a mini mid-season break when Ulster host Treviso at Ravenhill on Friday.

Having coughed up 65 points and seven tries in the two derbies, Ulster could do with a win, not least with Biarritz to come to Ravenhill on Saturday week, when a home win by more than seven points would leave them in the group’s driving seat ahead of their final Euro pool game in Aironi.

The Biarritz game is definitely the biggest of Court’s time with Ulster, and the 30-year-old, Australian-born ex shot putter is now in his fifth campaign with the province.

“I know the Bath game was big last season but this game at home, with where we sit in the pool, could put us in the driving seat for a home quarter-final. I’ve never played in a game of that importance for Ulster and I guess it’s hard not to be sort of looking toward that game.”

The last two weeks may not be a bad thing, he reckons, in that “it’s given everyone a kick up the bum. Everyone knows what we have to do now, we’ve gone through it with all the coaches, everyone has had their talking to and now we know what has to be done, and we know that we need to be winning this week leading in to the Biarritz game.”

Their summer recruitment having raised expectations, Ulster’s patterned and inconsistent performances have drawn a mixed reaction this season. Court accepts they are capable of much better.

“Definitely. I don’t think Ulster have played a full game well all season. We are far below what our potential is, especially with the signings. Even though we’ve been winning games, a lot of them have been fairly close games. If you look at our results, most would have been seven to 10 point wins. So even though we’ve gained experience in winning edgy games, there hasn’t really been one performance all season that you could say was a great performance.

“I think everyone is aware of it and I guess feeling a bit of the pressure in that we’re still not really playing well. We may be winning, but if you want to be beating teams like Biarritz and be competitive in the final stages of the Heineken Cup you need to be having games where you can switch on and play well, and put it all together, and Ulster haven’t really connected all the dots yet this season. We are very aware of that and hopefully this week it can start clicking.”

Court’s scrummaging impressed in a November International series that seemed to mark an upward curve in his slow-burning career, though he’d love an extended run at either loosehead or tighthead, but he accepts his form could be better.

“The consistency has been a lot better but with regards to there being a couple of really good games? No. I don’t think I’ve actually had any really good games this season so far.

“I’ve been working fairly hard on work-rate and different things around the field, and minimising mistakes. At the start of the season I played a lot at tighthead, which played out well for the ‘autumns’, but when I went back to loose during the autumn internationals I was a bit rusty.”

His scrummaging, and some refereeing interpretations, have annoyed him, and though he has consolidated with Ulster and played in all four November internationals, he admits: “I’m not happy with where I’m at and I definitely want to be playing a lot better.

“If I want to be pushing the guys down south for the Irish team I need to be playing better and doing a lot more than what I am.

“That’s the long and short of it, really."