Tight Belfast battle on cards as Leinster visit Ulster with one eye on Champions Cup final

One year ago, a week out from the Champions Cup final, Leinster hosted Munster in the Aviva Stadium with one eye off the ball.

Having finished the regular season top of the BKT URC pile, Leo Cullen's side had assured themselves a home run to a final they wouldn't reach.

In the space of seven days their season fell apart.

A routine quarter-final win over the Sharks, and Munster’s win in Glasgow, set the rivals on a collision course that Cullen reckoned he didn’t need his best horses for.

Only three of the starters from the 16-15 defeat, Jimmy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw and Jack Conan, lined out against La Rochelle at the same venue seven days later. Leinster got off to a flying start in that game but wilted badly in the second half.

This year, however, the dynamic around their pre-Champions Cup final tie has changed with the fixture list removing the jeopardy from their round-17 meeting with Ulster this evening (7.35pm).

Leinster, in second, are well placed and two more points will secure a home quarter-final, while nine would be enough for a home semi-final, should they get there.

That, along with the recent example of the game against Northampton - where Leinster's frontliners had a three-week break since the quarter-final win over La Rochelle - has meant Cullen has once again decided that his players don't need a run-out one week from their latest shot at a fifth star.

The worrying fall-off at the end of the 20-17 Saints win will have been discussed with Jacques Nienaber and the rest of the management but the decision is to place most of their eggs in the Champions Cup basket.

Leinster have Hugo Keenan and James Ryan back in harness – the duo needed to get some game-time after layoffs – but the rest of the team named yesterday are