IF ANYONE KNOWS what will be required to defeat Leinster at the Aviva Stadium today then it would probably be Ulster.
Given that 15 of the hosts’ match day squad were involved in the Irish Grand Slam-winning team, there should be little awaiting the visitors that they don’t already know is coming — after all, they’ve just watched them sweep aside all comers during the Six Nations.
Not only that but eight of their own number were a part of Andy Farrell’s squad, so they know exactly what is required at the highest level in order to be a success, and that, according to Kieran Treadwell, is what will be required to win today’s Heineken Champions Cup last-16 tie at the Aviva Stadium.
“There is such a high standard when you go down there that you try and bring back little bits and bobs to help the lads and to help the team,” says the English-born second row, who came on from the bench in the Grand Slam clincher against England.
“It drives you to be the best you can in those camps because there shouldn’t be a let-up or a step-down, it should be exactly the same level across the park. I think coming back into it (with Ulster), it’s sort of on me to bring that energy with me and try and get everyone to be as excited as I am.
“It’s good, we are all focused and ready to go.”
Of course, as much as the Ulster players know what will be coming at them from their rivals this evening, so too will it work the other way. From Grand Slam-winning teammates to European rivals, it will be a strange feeling when the two sides lock horns.
“It’s obviously a weird one because you are teammates when you are down there and you come back up here and you are playing against each other two weeks after lifting a trophy together,” laughs Treadwell.
“There’s definitely chat there and it’s definitely a challenge. You do know sort of how they play and they know how we play. It’s going to be a difficult one but an enjoyable one.”
But as much as it will be a very interesting experience, it is one that Ulster are determined to make memorable, too. Having come so close to defeating Leinster in a European quarter-final four years ago, losing 21-18 at the Aviva, they don’t want to be on the end of a similar scoreline this time around.
Few outside of those north of the border are giving Ulster much of a chance, but there is an internal belief at Kingspan Stadium that, having won five of their last six outings, they are in the right frame of mind to get a shock result and book their place in the last-eight.
The Champions Cup has not been a kind tournament to Ulster, as their exit at the hands of Toulouse last season shows, but Treadwell is confident they have done the work required to end that run of hurt.
“We are all in this to win, that’s why we play the game,” he says with steely determination.
“Winning is everything to me, especially to beat Leinster would be massive and give us momentum into the next game. We have always sort of been close and we just want to get that final step. We know we can do it and the belief is there. We have earned the right to believe we can do it. It is not just false belief, not, ‘Let’s go and do this, lads’, we can actually do this.
“It would mean everything. I have been here for seven years and it would mean everything to me and everyone here. We work so hard and no one sees everything, the nitty gritty bits we do, the work we do at home on the laptops and that sort of stuff.
“The amount of man hours and work we put in, it would mean so much to us all.”