“We have some star players in really good form at the moment, Charles Piutau and Ruan Pienaar were outstanding last week, so I think they’ll have a lot to think about on Saturday.”

Leinster 30 Ulster 18: Leinster have had their critics during a season which saw any bid for European honours ended as soon as it had begun, but they delivered a season’s best to claim a berth in next weekend’s Guinness PRO12 final in Edinburgh.

Newly-appointed Ireland skipper Rory Best will sit out the Champions Cup lunch-time date with Oyonnax as Ulster attempt to claim a bonus-point win at the Kingspan Stadium as they bid to keep their quarter-final hopes alive. Also absent are influential scrum-half Ruan Pienaar and flanker Chris Henry. Pienaar is sidelined with a virus while Henry is still suffering from the shoulder problem which ruled him out of Ireland’s Six Nations squad.