It is the most momentous clash of the Guinness Interprovincial Championship thus far - these things being relative of course. Last week's opening winners, Munster and Leinster, clash at Musgrave Park and anything like a repeat of last season's classic, a 45-40 win for Munster, would do nicely.
It was then and is likely to be now the pivotal and decisive match of the series; Munster's mental strength in completing a memorable fightback steered them towards the title. The match-winner was Eddie Halvey, with an injury-time try, though ironically his memories of that game, like much of last season, are not particularly happy.
"I actually played terribly in that game. Shocking. I scored the last-minute try but apart from that I was miserable." Still, he does remember it as "a good game, a very fast game. But there's not much else I can tell you about that game." The try? "A stroke of luck. In the right place at the right time."
Halvey takes an equally dim view of the general perception of this season's interpros. "There's very few internationals, with all of them across the water and that. It's still not going to be considered as a match with a very high profile. No matter how good the match is, people are going to be saying: `oh well, it's only the Irish seconds' because all the good players are in England."
If Halvey's mood is any reflection on his team-mates and opponents, there will be 30 players eager to prove a point or two not just in the remainder of the interpros but also the European Cup. "It's very unfair, with the situation at the moment and the way everybody is training. Fitness levels have been massively improved. I train two or three times on a Monday and twice every other day up until Thursday. I mean, club level, may be struggling at the moment but at provincial level I think we'll do well in the European Cup."
Halvey's mood may not necessarily be an accurate barometer. It's been a miserable season or two for the one-time Irish flanker. His move to Saracens was cut short by his mother's protracted battle with cancer - which sadly ended the week before last - and a sequence of injuries undermined his best efforts to rehabilitate a once-promising career.
Having privately vowed to relaunch his international career during the summer's development tour to New Zealand, a perforated ulcer forced him to return home early.
He was back in training within a week. "I'm fitter than I've ever been," says the reborn 27-yearold. "I started well with the Connacht game. I didn't do too badly."
But he pours scorn on his supposed man-of-the-match display. "It was a lethargic sort of game. Our defence was very strong, that's what won us the game.
"We're looking forward to this game. They've picked a very big pack, bigger than our pack, and we hope to run them around a bit if we've enough of the ball."
Halvey says he's hungrier "than I've ever been before. This is make or break time for me. I either make it now or that's it. If I stay injury free I reckon I will, hopefully, with the training I'm putting in at the moment."
His personal target is painted in black and white. "To get back into the national squad. There's a position there for somebody. Hopefully it will be."
Halvey has not fulfilled his immense ability as a big, athletic ball-winning, ball-carrying wing-forward for the modern game. "That's very true. I've let myself down more than anyone else. I hadn't got myself right going into games and that's why I was picking up injuries. It was my attitude more than anything else."
