ULSTER fans received a much-needed boost on the eve of Friday's PRO12 clash with Leinster, with confirmation that team captain Rory Best has signed a two-year contract extension with the IRFU which will keep him at Kingspan Stadium until June 2018.
Best made his senior debut for the province against Munster in November 2004 and he has amassed 172 caps, scoring 16 tries. The 33-year-old hooker made his first appearance for Ireland against New Zealand a year later and he won the last of his 89 caps in the World Cup quarter-final defeat by Argentina.
"I am very happy to have signed a two-year Irish contract to remain with Ulster Rugby. It is a great honour to play for Ulster and Ireland and I am privileged to have the opportunity to captain this talented group of Ulster players," said Best.
"Our challenge now is to deliver on the promise we have shown and reward our fans with strong performances."
Ulster certainly failed to deliver on Best's pledge in last week's disappointing 27-9 European Champions Cup defeat by Saracens in Belfast and will be looking to make amends in tonight's encounter at the RDS.
Scrum-half Ruan Pienaar will clock up a century of caps in the game as one of the 11 players who retain their place in Director of Rugby Less Kiss's starting line-up. Kiss has brought in Kyle McCall, Robbie Diack and Sean Reidy, who are included in the pack, with Peter Nelson preferred to Louis Ludik at full-back.
Iain Henderson will start at lock following his first appearance of the season in the back-row in the defeat by Saracens last Friday night. Henderson has paid tribute to Pienaar ahead of the clash in Dublin which hasn't been a happy hunting ground for Ulster who have won there only once since 1999 - an 18-16 success in March 2013.
"You don't realise it so much when you're playing with him but, subtly and massively, he's really calm and collected," he said.
"There's never an awful lot of panic with him but when you're watching him play you realise how confident he is in everything he does."
Henderson admitted that Monday's video review of the Saracens game made for painful viewing and he realises that Ulster will need to show vast improvement if they are to win Friday night's game
"The coaches made a few points about what we needed to bring to the table and bits and pieces that we needed to clarify ourselves," he added.
"But there were positives as well from the game, I thought, and we did well for 60 minutes when we were still four points ahead. We let them get on top of us and they didn't allow us to execute our game plan but they took their opportunities very well and scored three very nice tries in the second-half.
"Playing Leinster will be as intense a game, if not more so, considering both teams are off the back of frustrating losses and I think as an inter-pro they always are intense games. Going into this one, I think both teams will feel like they've something they have to prove and that will add to the intensity and atmosphere.
"We got a win down there two seasons ago; we've had a few semi-finals and finals down there which haven't gone our way, which is frustrating. But I don't see any reason why we can't go down there and get a result as we've got a very strong side and if we can fix what we didn't do right at the weekend, it's a game we can win."
Henderson's Ireland team mate Luke Fitzgerald agrees that the clash at the RDS will be an intense occasion as Leinster aim to recover from their opening two Champions Cup defeats by Wasps, at the RDS, and away to Bath.
"Ulster are only one place behind us, so it's really important; especially in the RDS, the people are looking for a better performance," said Fitzgerald, who will start on the left-wing on Friday.
"The last time they came out, we obviously didn't do ourselves justice and we didn't make them proud, which is something we always try and do, which is very, very disappointing. That's what we always want to do in the RDS. It's good to have a huge challenge this weekend against Ulster, who are obviously coming off the back of a very tough result as well, so they'll be up for it."
"An inter-pro is always a huge challenge and we've got a short turnaround but I think there's a couple of simple things we can do well to help ourselves perform better."
TEAM NEWS
Ulster: P Nelson, A Trimble, D Cave, S McCloskey, C Gilroy, P Jackson, R Pienaar; K McCall, R Best (capt.), W Herbst, I Henderson, D Tuohy, R Diack, S Reidy, N Williams; Replacements: R Herring, A Warwick, R Lutton, R Wilson, C Henry, P Marshall, I Humphreys, L Ludik.
