'Crunch time for Ulster but pressure on Leinster'

Listen to Leinster v Ulster on BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website & app (kick-off 17:00 BST) on Saturday, 8 June; text updates, report & highlights on BBC Sport website & app

Should Ulster require recent happy memories against Leinster before facing them in the United Rugby Championship play-offs on Saturday, they needn't look far.

Just three weeks ago, in fact, a packed Kingspan Stadium revelled in Ulster's thrilling win over their inter-provincial rivals.

Thanks to John Cooney's 79th-minute penalty, the northern province wrapped up a home and away double over Leinster having won 22-21 at a rain-lashed RDS Arena in Dublin.

Given Leinster's interpro dominance in recent years, and given that they beat Ulster three times last season, the significance of Ulster's results in this fixture this term should not be entirely discounted.

But with knockout rugby comes a different Leinster, both in terms of personnel and mentality. That has usually been bad news for Ulster.

Since 2011, they have faced each other in eight knockout games. Ulster have lost them all. During that sequence, Leinster have edged tight games (the 2019 Champions Cup quarter-final) and have dominated one-sided games (last year's Champions Cup last-16).

For Ulster, the play-offs offer a shot at redemption after the deeply disappointing home loss to Connacht in last year's quarter-final.

But their hopes of progressing beyond that stage this time around are not helped by the prospect of travelling to the Aviva Stadium - a place that holds precious few positive memories - to face a Leinster side still wounded from their extra-time Champions Cup final loss to Toulouse.

In fact, Leinster are trying to avoid a third successive trophy-less season which, for a team that perennially features in the final stages of every tournament they are involved in, must be considered a drought.

And while Ulster's knockout record is far from exemplary, Leinster are not without their own scar tissue in these do-or-die games.

In addition to losing three European Cup finals in a row, they exited the URC play-offs in the semi-finals last year, having been undone by a Jack Crowley-inspired Munster.

In 2022, it was a one-point defeat at home to the Bulls. Leinster's last league title was in 2021 when they completed four-in-a-row.

It's only been three years, but for a club of their stature it feels like an eternity. Dan Sheehan, Leinster's starting hooker on Saturday, has won two Six Nations titles with Ireland but is yet to capture silverware at club level.

"It [winning trophies] is definitely something we talk about at the start of each year and it’s a major part of this club," Sheehan told RTE earlier this week.

"The history of this club is winning trophies, so we talk about it all the time."

Leinster trained at the Aviva Stadium on Friday

Of course, Ulster's quest to add to their trophy cabinet has literally spanned a generation. Major silverware last graced Ravenhill in 2006.

Ulster players, like their Leinster counterparts, feel the weight of expectation every season.

But context is crucial and even securing a top-eight finish has been viewed as an achievement for Ulster after a season of tumult in BT6.

Indeed, the departures of head coach Dan McFarland and chief executive Jonny Petrie midway through the season, coupled with a poor string of results, plunged Ulster's play-off hopes into doubt.

But the appointment of Ireland Under-20 head coach Richie Murphy has unquestionably rejuvenated the club, with last week's loss to Munster ending a run of four straight wins.

Murphy, though, grasps the magnitude of the challenge facing his players on Saturday.

In the wake of last week's loss at Munster, he was quick to place on record his assertion that nobody "will give us a shot down there".

While it would be a stretch to completely write off Ulster's chances before a ball is kicked on Saturday, the expectation is that Leinster, virtually at full-strength and smarting from their European heartache, will have too much.

But if Ulster start as well as they did in Thomond Park, where they led 17-7 at half-time, and finish as strongly as they have done against Leinster already this season, expect another tight interpro that goes down to the wire.

Line-ups

Leinster: Jimmy O’Brien; Jordan Larmour, Robbie Henshaw, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan (capt); Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Michael Ala’alatoa, Ross Molony, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Sam Prendergast, Ciaran Frawley.

Ulster: Stewart Moore; Mike Lowry, Will Addison, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Billy Burns, John Cooney; Eric O’Sullivan, Rob Herring (capt), Tom O’Toole; Harry Sheridan, Cormac Izuchukwu; Matty Rea, David McCann, Nick Timoney.

Replacements: Tom Stewart, Andy Warwick, Scott Wilson, Greg Jones, Dave Ewers, Nathan Doak, Ethan McIlroy, Jude Postlethwaite.