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Gilroy has been in fine form this season. INPHO/Presseye/Kelvin Boyes
no fear

Gilroy confident ahead of Leinster showdown

The Ulster winger acknowledges that Joe Schmidt’s men are favourites, but believes his side can spring a surprise.

ULSTER’S CRAIG GILROY believes his side are good enough to upset Leinster in the Heineken Cup final on May 19 at Twickenham.

The winger has been in fine form this season, scoring a wonder try in his side’s surprise quarter-final win over Munster.

And while Gilroy acknowledges that Leinster are favourites for the match, he believes Ulster are capable of springing another surprise, telling the province’s official site:

“Yes of course (they’re favourites). The strength in depth they have in their whole squad is unbelievable. Their backline is incredible; they shift the ball and get it into the wide channels.”

And he added that Ulster weren’t getting too disheartened by the fact that they were beaten in a recent RaboDirect Pro12 game between the sides:

“We lost that game and I was gutted. There were positives we can take out of that. They had a full strength team, we were missing a few guys, Paddy (Wallace) went off, Chrissy (Henry) went off. That gave us great confidence and I feel they are very beatable. It was a scrappy game but I can see the final being a lot different.”

Ulster have won the Heineken Cup once (in 1999) previously, while Leinster have triumphed twice in the past three years.

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