MAGNERS LEAGUE: MICHAEL BRADLEY and his players probably looked at the run-in to the end of the Magners League and said 'well, at least Ulster still have to face Munster'.
Ulster v Connacht Venue: Ravenhill 6.30 On TV: Setanta Ireland
In their heads they would have chalked that one down for an Ulster defeat. Not now. Two days after the mother of all European semi-finals against Saracens on April 27th, Munster are being asked to face Ulster in the league.
This piece of scheduling has arguably undermined Connacht's campaign. There is no way Declan Kidney can ask his front-line Munster players to turn around and face Ulster, on a Tuesday evening, after a semi-final battle the previous weekend.
If this is an attempt to keep Connacht away from the top table then the schedulers may have gotten their way.
The flip side is Connacht will see the meeting tonight in Belfast as a final throw of the dice. Granted there are three more games after this but defeat for Connacht would probably take them out of the running for a place in next season's Heineken Cup as Ireland's third-ranked team.
Anything but a win for Bradley and his side would leave Ulster four points ahead on the table with four matches to play, and one of those against Munster's seconds XV.
For the home side, the match will represent their most fraught encounter since Matt Williams took charge.
It is a must win for them too and a match in which they have to right some wrongs of previous outings.
In the last two games Ulster have had players in the bin and their penalty count against the Ospreys was too high to be competitive. Against Munster there were claims they missed 30 tackles.
There is a lot of tidying up required.
The side is currently playing on the wrong side of the edge and getting penalised for it. Both Williams and his Australian secondrow, Justin Harrison, have also upped the ante with the referee and have complained that the breakdown and offside have not been whistled correctly.
"It's a home game and it's an opportunity for us to right some of the wrongs that occurred against the Ospreys. For 60 minutes we were a competitive side and 15-7 down - with 20 minutes to go we were well in the match but our concentration let us down," said Harrison.
"The problem with the Magners League is the breakdown is not being refereed properly; the touch judges aren't refereeing the offside line or linking with the referee in the middle like they should be. For us it will be about letting the referee follow the rule book and hopefully it will be a clean game."
Williams was diplomatic enough to front-load a compliment before getting to the thorny issue of the referee.
"Connacht are a very smart team and will play every breakdown; they are in front of the kicker at every restart and will try to take every inch of advantage," said Williams.
"We need the referee to give us a fair go; we need the breakdown and offside laws to be really refereed"
The experience of Justin Fitzpatrick and the physicality of Carlo Del Fava are added to the Ulster squad. They are the only two changes to the starting line-up, with Bryan Young and Ryan Caldwell named on the bench.
Connacht have named an unchanged starting 15, with Bradley preferring to stay with the group that lost to Munster in the last match at the Sportsground two weeks ago.
If Ulster are concerned about the breakdown openside flanker Johnny O'Connor will ensure they remain that way, while captain Andrew Farley is very effective at running the lineout.
Connacht will hope to disrupt a lot of Ulster ball and knock them out of any fluency, especially with Andrew Trimble, Tommy Bowe and Paddy Wallace eager to get running in front of a home crowd. Williams' recalling of Fitzpatrick and Del Fava is clearly an effort to compete strongly in this area.
Connacht have troubled both Leinster and Munster this season. In Belfast it is a bigger challenge but the nature of these local meetings is that they are always tight.
ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, P Wallace, M Bartholomeusz; N O'Connor, I Boss; J Fitzpatrick, R Best (Capt), T Court, J Harrison, C Del Fava, M McCullough, K Dawson, S Ferris. Replacements: N Brady, B Young, R Caldwell, N Best, P Marshall, R Dewey, M McCrea.
CONNACHT: G Duffy; M Mostyn, M Deane, K Matthews, D Riordan; A Dunne, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; D Gannon, A Farley (C); J Muldoon, J O'Connor, C Rigney. Replacements: J Fogarty, R Loughney, A Browne, L Casserly, R Shaw, T Nathan, D Yapp.
Referee: Alan Lewis
Verdict: Home win.
