Ulster head to the Aviva Stadium hoping to get one over their interprovincial rivals and progress into the Quarter Finals of the Champion's Cup.
The province goes into its fourth Champions Cup play-off stage in five seasons following a 22-11 victory over Sale Sharks in the final Pool B match in January in front of a home crowd at Kingspan Stadium, after a challenging route to this weekendโs knock-out game.
Leinster have been in purring form having gone the entire season unbeaten. They sit at the summit of the BKT United Rugby Championship and won all four rounds in Pool A.
Match Details
๐๏ธ Saturday 1 April
โฐ 5.30pm
๐๏ธ Aviva Stadium
๐ Heineken Champions Cup
๐บ BT Sport, RTร
Last Time Out
Ulster last met Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup back in 2019, at the Quarter Final stage. Like this year it was a sell out crowd at the Aviva Stadium and is remembered as one of the tightest matches between the two provinces in recent years.
Ulster started off brightly through Kieran Treadwell but Leinster got themselves back into the match through tries from Ross Byrne and Nathan Byrne. Luke Marshall then got Ulster back on level terms.
With the score tied at 18-18, fly half Ross Byrne converted a penalty to send the Dubliners three points infront, a lead they would hold onto in a 21-18 victory.
Team News
Ulster
๐ฃ Team News
โ Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) March 31, 2023
Your Ulster team to take on Leinster tomorrow in the @ChampionsCup ๐ฅ
๐ช Alan O'Connor captains the side
๐ Rory Sutherland, Rob Herring, Tom O'Toole and Stuart McCloskey return pic.twitter.com/qxgIGyJknC
Leinster
๐ฅ ๐๐ก๐ #๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐ญ๐๐๐ฆ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ!
โ Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) March 31, 2023
Here is the Leinster team for tomorrow's @ChampionsCup Round of 16 clash with @UlsterRugby in a sold-out @AVIVAStadium #LEIvULS #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/VEjwADpeVh
Player to Watch
Where to start? With 14 of the Grand Slam winning Ireland players in Leinster's squad for the match, the Dubliners have one of the strongest squads in world rugby.
Six of their side who will start the game were named in the Guinness Six Nations team of the tournament, with Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, James Ryan, Josh Van Der Flier, James Lowe and Hugo Keenan praised for their performances in the tournament.
With captain Jonathan Sexton out injured, his deputy Ross Byrne is a more than capable fly half. Byrne filled in for Sexton during the Guinness Six Nations wins against Italy, as well as making appearances from the bench during the tournament.
Deadly accurate with his kicks, Byrne leads the province's point scoring for the Champion's Cup this season, with a total of 16 conversions in the competition.
Byrne is third on Leinster's list of all time points scorers in the Heineken Champions Cup on 262 points.
Did you know?
Leinster Rugby
- Josh van der Flier is the top try-scorer in the Heineken Champions Cup so far with five.
- Andrew Porter is the most penalised player in this seasonโs tournament, having conceded eight penalties. Four of those have been for scrum offences.
- Caelan Doris has made more try assists than any other player with five.
Ulster Rugby
- Alan OโConnor has made the most clearouts in the Heineken Champions Cup, dismissing 29 threats to Ulsterโs ball at the ruck.