BYRNE OUT TO ENSURE BLUES DON’T GIVE ULSTER A SNIFF

LEINSTER out-half Ross Byrne believes tomorrow’s Pro14 showdown with Ulster at the RDS is the biggest game of their festive interprovincial series as Leo Cullen’s men seek to bounce back from last weekend’s loss to Munster. That highly-charged 26-17 defeat before a packed Thomond Park followed on from a thrilling 33-29 home win over Connacht, when Leinster fought back from 17 points down, and the province are desperate to return to winning ways before resuming their Champions Cup pool campaign with a seismic RDS clash with Toulouse on Saturday, January 12. With Johnny Sexton likely to be rested in advance of that Toulouse game, Byrne is poised to start at 10 tomorrow and believes the need to build confidence for Europe and maintain a healthy advantage at the head of Conference B in the Pro14 (Ulster are 16 points behind in second) puts real significance on beating Dan McFarland’s men. ‘It’s huge, it’s arguably bigger than those two games [Connacht and Munster] because Ulster are in our conference,’ said Byrne (below). ‘We have a reasonable lead at the moment and we want to maintain that. We don’t want to give them a sniff of trying to catch us. It’s crucial that we get a win and then to build a bit of momentum going into Europe as well. ‘It’s been a good start to the season, we’re first in our conference but we’re still second in our group in Europe,’ added Byrne. ‘So, after this we have two massive games coming up in Europe and we’ll be looking to top the group. ‘Ulster have got threats all over the pitch, their backline score some amount of tries and they have got deadly finishers so we’re going to have to be very tight defensively,’ pointed out Byrne, who has been impressed with the performances of Ulster outhalf Billy Burns this season. ‘He’s been good. He runs their backline well, he takes the ball to the line reasonably well and has a strong kicking game.’