Donal Lenihan's BKT United Rugby Championship semi-finals preview

Stormers v Connacht, DHL Stadium, Saturday, 3pm (Irish)

It's a tough one but I love the Connacht attitude. They left for Cape Town on Tuesday, arrived on Wednesday and they’ve been relishing this trip.

Teams don’t always do that, especially against the Stormers, who’ve only lost one game at home in their last 23, and that was to Munster a couple of weeks ago.

The Stormers, the holders of the URC title, have doubts over two of their Springbok forwards, Deon Fourie and Marvin Orie.

The logic suggests that the Stormers will have too much for Connacht but I give them a fighting chance.

Shamus Hurley-Langton and Cian Prendergast were outstanding in the back row in their great win in Belfast last weekend against Ulster.

I give them a chance; it could be Andy Friend’s last game and the squad are really behind them but Stormers are probably favourites to reach another final.

Leinster v Munster, Aviva Stadium, Saturday, 5.30pm

The narrative around this game all week has been the HIAs [head injury assessment], with Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, RG Snyman and Malachai Fekitoa. I think it’s a worry for the game that you lose four players to the game to head injuries. That’s a debate for another day.

But when you look at it coldly, the Leinster team is going to be short at least eight or nine Ireland Grand Slam winners so I think Munster have to adopt a positive attitude with the injury issues.

They could take a leaf out of Ireland head coach Andy Farrell’s book and talk about confidence in chaos.

The problem will be the mental set. They’ve lost 12 of their last 13 against Leinster in the Aviva. The team that Leinster will play has been the fore-runners for them in this competition this year.

A lot of them won’t play in the Champions Cup final