'He's not giving much away' - Ulster boss Murphy excited to face son Ben

United Rugby Championship - Ulster v Connacht

Venue: Kingspan Stadium, Belfast Date: Saturday, 12 October Kick-off: 20:00 BST

Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy says his son Ben Murphy is "not giving much away" as they prepare to face each other in Saturday's United Rugby Championship game in Belfast.

While Murphy's son Jack joined his father at Ulster in the summer, Ben moved west to Connacht after leaving Leinster.

The 23-year-old scrum-half has made a flying start to life in Galway with three tries in as many games, but his father is hoping he has a quiet game at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday if he lines out.

"It's a very unique situation," said Ulster boss Murphy, who is currently without the services of Jack, who is on tour with Emerging Ireland in South Africa.

"He's not giving much away. I don't actually know if he's playing at the weekend or not, he won't tell me even though other people are feeding back information.

"We'll wait and see. He's had a really good start to the season. Obviously he moved down to Galway in the summer and has fitted in really well.

"Like every young player when they make these moves, if they get the opportunity, it gives them the opportunity to take it and that's what he's done. It's great to see him doing so well but not this week."

Former Ireland Under-20 head coach Murphy, who was given the Ulster job in May following an interim spell in charge, has presided over an up-and-down start to the campaign with an opening URC win over Glasgow followed by back-to-back defeats by the Lions and Bulls.

Despite a couple of negative results in South Africa, Murphy says the squad is in "good spirits" ahead of a testing encounter against a Connacht side who secured impressive wins over the Sharks and Scarlets after a thrilling 35-33 loss to Munster.

"We're coming home to the Kingspan where all the lads really love playing," said Murphy, who will welcome centre Jude Postlethwaite back into the fold after he was released from Emerging Ireland duty earlier this week.

"It's a big day and they know that. Connacht are riding high. Although they lost their first game, they got a lot of confidence out of that.

"They still managed to give Munster the opportunity to win the game, which they did, they went away and beat Sharks at home and beat Scarlets away, played really well although they did give Scarlets a chance to win that game.

"They're confident, we can see that with the way they're speaking. We're concentrating on ourselves and trying to look after our performance which will hopefully lead to a positive result."