The teams head into Friday night's clash in contrasting form with Ulster having suffered two defeats in six days on Welsh soil to the Ospreys and the Dragons.

Meanwhile the Italians have racked up back-to-back victories over Glasgow and Scarlets and are seeking to record three successive victories in the RaboDirect PRO12 for the first time ever.

However, Treviso have lost all six of their previous matches against Ulster and have won just one of their last six encounters against Irish opposition.

Ulster's hand is significantly strengthened by the return to action of Ian Humphreys, Darren Cave and Jared Payne in their backline and they boast a formidable home record which stands at nine successive victories at Ravenhill.

"We will have to be bang on with our physicality against Treviso who have come off the back of two wins," said McLaughlin.

"They are exceptionally physical at the breakdown and if we don't front up and perform at our best in that area they will cause us problems.

"We have to get better in that area and improve our physicality around the ruck, but it has not been too bad.

"The game on Friday night against the Dragons, we did not get turned over at the breakdown once although they did slow us down. If you look at the breakdown, we had five poached balls

"On Friday night, we had 14 players out from our full squad who are at the World Cup or who are unavailable through injury."

In the pack, hookerAndi Kyriacou and lock Tim Barker come into the starting XV while Mike McComish makes his full Ulster debut at openside.

Meanwhile, Treviso coach Franco Smith opts to alter a winning formula to take account of players returning from injury and the Azzurri's unsuccessful World Cup campaign.

Tobias Botes makes his first start of the season at scrum-half while tighthead Lorenzo Cittadini, lock Valerio Bernabò and flanker Benjamin Vermaak all start.

At Ravenhill, 7.05pm.

Referee: Stefano Penne (FIR, 6th competition game)

Assistant Referees: Olly Hodges, Dave O'Brien (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Peter Ferguson (IRFU)
TMO: Marshall Kilgore (IRFU)

Live on BBCNI