Munster prop Jeremy Loughman says he's expecting a big backlash from Leinster when they face their rivals at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
The pair are due to face off in front of close to a full-house in Ballsbridge, six months on from Munster's dramatic 16-15 win when they met in last season's BKT URC semi-finals.
It was Munster's first knock-out win against Leinster in five attempts dating back to the 2011 Celtic League decider, and it was the springboard for Graham Rowntree's side to go on and see off the Stormers to lift the trophy a fortnight later in South Africa.
"It was kind of one of those wins we needed to get, a monkey off the back," Loughman said as he looked back on that game in May.
"It just showed everyone how we were moving forward as a team and in terms of that rivalry, pushing ourselves as a better team and challenging for those big games.
"So it was massive, a morale boost for everyone to see that when we do our work right that we can achieve what we're aiming for."
The 28-year-old (below) is among a number of former Leinster players in the Munster squad, having joined from his home province in 2017.
But he says it takes nothing away from the rivalry between the sides.
"It has a special feel, the [Leinster] week, you can feel coming in that everyone's on edge, it's a bit different," he added.
"Everyone's at each other, making sure we're all perfect, we're really pushing ourselves and they're the weeks that you really look forward to, the big weeks, the big crowds, there's going to be 45,000 people there so it will be a full house and the atmosphere will be class.
"So really looking forward to it, they're special games and they're the ones you want to play in, especially when you grow up watching them.
"We'll have a big target on our back and they'll be looking for revenge up there, I know they all will be.
"It's massively exciting, it will be a proper match, a proper rivalry match, so I'm really looking forward to that. They'll definitely be coming for us but we'll be looking forward to it."
The Ireland international is also looking forward to renewing his old schools front-row partnership with the incoming Oli Jager next month.
Jager, who is arriving at the province this week following his move from Crusaders in New Zealand, started alongside Loughman in the front row for Blackrock College in their 2013 Leinster Schools Senior Cup final win against St Michael's College, while Garry Ringrose and Nick Timoney were also part of that winning side.
The Munster prop laughs when it's suggested he may have been the middle-man in convincing Jager to return to Ireland from Christchurch, and says it will be special to renew their partnership 10 years on.
He said: "I'd actually been chatting with him a good bit, we would have kept in touch and I met up with him in the summer tour in New Zealand [in 2022].
"So I'm looking forward to him coming over, I would have got on with him very well in school and we kept in touch over the years, so it will be good.
"It's a crazy record he has, isn't it? I think he's won [a title] every year that's been available for him to win that he's been there.
"It's massive having someone coming in who has been in such a high-performance environment for so long now and it's incredible just to pick their brains on what's different.
"It's a new viewpoint on things as well with that experience, so it will be nice to see how someone else does it because he's coming from such a successful environment.
"It will be really nice to see if he has any different points on things."
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Watch live coverage of the Vodacom Bulls v Connacht in the BKT United Rugby Championship on Saturday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, and listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
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