ON HIGH ALERT!

Leinster wary of Ulstermen’s final ferocity

LEINSTER are bidding to complete a hat-trick of Pro14 titles, but Leo Cullen has warned his side to write off Ulster at their peril ahead of tonight’s finale at the Aviva Stadium.

Leinster, who are currently on an unbeaten run of 24 games stretching back to May of last year, finished 25 points ahead of their provincial rivals in Conference A of the league while Cullen’s second-string made light work of a full-strength Ulster outfit at the same venue last month.

However, Cullen cited last season’s European quarter-final meeting in Dublin when Leinster were pushed all the way by a fired-up Ulster — with a late Ross Byrne penalty sealing a nervy 2118 win.

‘What are teams like when everything is at stake? The winners get the prize and the losers get nothing. It’s important that we understand that dynamic when it really comes down to it,’ said Leinster’s head coach.

‘They really put it up to us that day. We rode

luck at different stages so we need to make sure that we get all our bits right so we’re not relying on the opposition coming up with the odd error, here and there, that is going to win us the game. ‘We need to go out and put in a performance that is good enough to win us the game on merit. That’s what we’ve tried to focus on this week.’ Cullen has made four changes to the team which defeated Munster last time out, with Byrne, Jamison-Gibson Park, James Ryan and Josh van der Flier earning recalls. Johnny Sexton drops to the bench with Garry Ringrose, on his 75th appearance, taking over the captaincy. ‘I think it’s when you see people influencing the group really and he’s such a key student of the game really,’ said Cullen on Lenster’s new leader. ‘He’s always looking to improve himself, whether that’s his attacking skills or his defensive reading of the game.’ Dan McFarland had made the bold call to select Kiwi scrumhalf Alby Mathewson ahead of John Cooney but the Ulster head coach denied that Leinster were showing his team a lack of respect by benching Sexton for tonight’s encounter. ‘Ross Byrne is a really good player, he led them to a win over us in the quarter-final last year, so he’s got a history there. ‘It doesn’t really matter who they pick, they’re still going to be pretty good.’ Meanwhile, Ireland’s home games in the Autumn Nations Cup are all set to be shown on RTE television.