Paul Pritchard hoping to make it third time lucky with Instonians in bid to win Bateman Cup final against Lansdowne in Dublin

Instonians won the cup in 1927 when they beat Saturday’s opponents 16-8.

As a player Pritchard has appeared in the final twice but has yet to taste success, losing with Ballymena and Old Belvedere.

Inst reached the final by winning the Ulster Senior Cup and defeated Ballynahinch, City of Armagh and Queen’s to lift the trophy at Kingspan Stadium.

In the Bateman Cup semi-final, Pritchard’s team toppled another AIL Division 1 club – Garryowen – in Limerick.

The Inst boss said: “It would be nice. I have been lucky to get to the final twice and lost it twice. It is a nice little prize at the end of winning the Senior Cup and then going and beating Garryowen, so their is a real cherry at the end of this run that we are on, and we are really looking forward to it.

“Regardless of the result for our guys, it is going to be a great experience. Lansdowne are maybe not doing as well as they would like in 1A this year but I’m sure that will change by the end of the season.

“They are a team that have always sort of been at the top of that league. We’re expecting a real eye-opener and a real bit of learning for us against a top team, and we are very excited to go and test ourselves against such strong opposition.”

Inst languished in junior rugby for eight years but have had three consecutive promotions, sit top of Division 2A and are 80 minutes away from being crowned All Ireland Cup champions.

“It is massive, and I think after things like this you maybe look back on them a little bit more and think that was class, and amazing what we did there.

“I think when you are in that run, and you are involved in it, you just try and look forward and enjoy it as much as you can so we probably don’t appreciate it as much as we will in a few years.

“I think my first year at the club, Instonians were even in the Junior Cup because they had finished outside the top five and that is something that I remember – that it was a real target to try and win that Junior Cup.

“For us now to be in the Bateman Cup final in the space of three or four years is a great achievement and hopefully we can finish that with a famous victory on Saturday.”

Inst have played four Division 1 clubs to reach the final, with none of the cup ties played at Shaw’s Bridge.

“It’s been brilliant, and it would be outstanding if we could top it off with a win,” said Pritchard. “With it going over two seasons as well it feels a wee bit different and maybe not as connected as much to the Hinch and Armagh victories in the Senior Cup.

“I think this will be the toughest game we have played as a group. Watching them on video and what I know about them, having them away on that back pitch at the Aviva where they are very good.

“They are really well coached and this is going to be a really tough game for us, but we’re just ready to go and get stuck into it and show what our standard is.”

Reflecting on Inst’s defeat against Armagh in the Senior Cup, Pritchard added: “We got beat in our last game against Armagh in the Senior Cup. I felt that was a game that could have went either way; a couple of different decisions and couple of different bounces of the ball and we win that game.

“I said to the lads after, this is our standard, this is where we are at and these are the games that we should be having week-in and week-out – that is how we feel as a group and we’ll see against Lansdowne.”

Inst have no fear going to Dublin.

“The lads fear no one” said Pritchard. “They are going in there raring to go. If I was a betting man I’d probably bet on us.”

Lansdowne are seventh in Division 1A having lost five of nine games, while Instonians have won eight and lost one to open up a five-point cushion at the top of 2A.

Pritchard contninued: “They will be strong favourites and that suits us. We’re quite happy to go down there and play without any fear, get stuck in and try to get that result.

“We have done it three times now against 1A teams and once against a 1B team. We’ll just go in, dig deep and put in a performance like we have done in these games before and we’ll see what happens.

“For us it is a win-win week no matter what. We go down there and we learn a lot about ourselves, or we go down there and we get a really good win.

“For us it is just about enjoying it as much as possible, there is absolutely zero pressure.

“Lansdowne defend different from most teams that we have played against in recent years and if we can beat that, I think that is where we’ll win the game.”