Michael Cheika's Leinster v Ulster Preview

"We've obviously tried to balance the idea of getting our players back from the international arena, so we've decided to leave a few of those (players) out and give them an opportunity to have a rest.

"We're boosted by the availability Leo (Cullen) and CJ (van der Linde) for this week so we're getting close, for the first time this season, to having everyone available. So if everyone can come through this weekend's game without any problems then next week could be a week where we will have our whole squad to choose from.

"Gordon D'Arcy is rested enough over the last 12 months! He's keen to play and expressed his desire to play this weekend. We respect that from our players. He had time off earlier in the week and won't come back and join us until later in the week and it's good that, with the game being on the Sunday, have an extra bit of time to prepare.

"I just saw Luke (Fitzgerald) up in the office there and from what I've seen so far I don't think it's too serious. He got scans yesterday (Monday) as a precaution and I'm awaiting a full medical report, but I'm sure that if it was something serious that I would have heard by now. I have allowed those guys a bit of time away and I was a bit surprised to see him around.

"There are some very big games coming up over the next three weeks in the context of retaining the Magners League title, the derby nature of the next two games (against Ulster and Munster), as well as the European qualification (against Harlequins). It's going to be in an interesting combination of; who players, which players and when...

"Obviously if you look at Ulster they have a few players like (Rory) Best, Paddy Wallace and Tom Court who should all be returning from the Irish team. It's a big test for us. I think that Ulster will be buoyed by their win against Munster in Thomond Park and they will definitely be targeting to that away double.

"They're three very big weeks and we're looking forward to them.

"We got two very good results away in Wales and everybody's excited about getting back to playing regularly again. You can feel the energy and enthusiasm in training and I'd like to think that we have improved a little bit over that time.

"We know that our title aspirations are in the next two games, but all that we can manage is our result against Ulster."