Ulster's Juarno Augustus fired up for huge derby against Leinster at Ravenhill

Ireland’s oldest rivalry takes on even greater emphasis with more than local bragging rights at stake, with Richie Murphy’s side third in the URC table, only a point and place ahead of the Dubliners as the race for home advantage in the knockout games intensifies.

Ulster are without Ireland internationals Rob Herring, Nick Timoney and Rob Baloucoune, while Leinster travel north missing the likes of Andrew Porter, Tadgh Furlong, Joe McCarthy, Caelan Doris, Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe.

However, Augustus is expecting a ferocious battle.

“I think it's the same kind of build-up because you want to beat the team that's your rival,” said Augustus.

“Any derby game or any inter-pro is a big game and we take it seriously. For me as an outsider, I don't feel like an outsider; I'm part of this team and we have the same goal as a team in our bubble.

“So that's what we want to do, we want to play well, do well and we take any inter-pro game or any derby game as it is.

“Northampton Saints only had Leicester as their derby game; here we have Munster, Leinster and Connacht as our big rivalries, so we just want to go out there and be the best in the country.”

Augustus has been impressed with the Ulster backrow since making the move to Ravenhill from Franklin Gardens last summer.

“In our back row, there's really good competition, so if the ‘one’ goes out, the next guy can come in and slot straight in away,” he added.

“Bryn’s (Ward) been doing well, you can see every time when he starts or comes off the bench he scores or makes a great run, and he's still young.

“David McCann is probably one of our top players in the pack. You can see the way he plays every week with his lineouts, his lineout attack, lineout D, tackling and carrying, so he's up there as well.

“Nick Timoney, he speaks for himself; he got into the national team and played in the Six Nations.

“There's good competition in the back row, hopefully it can stay like that, it keeps us on our toes.”

Augustus was part of the Saints side that dumped Leinster out of the European Champions Cup last season.

“I spoke a bit to Mark (Sexton)… but it's a new team now, Leinster. They play different, but since I was at Northampton and playing against them, we have different strengths [to Northampton], so we're going to do our own thing and see if we can pull it off on the weekend.

“It's going to be big for us but it's all in our hands. I think if we play the way we want to play and do what we want to do, we can guard it and easily stand out against any other team, so that's what we're going to try and do, just do our best and see if we can get the result from it.

“I think for us it's just doing what we're trained to do. We're going to try and be as physical as we can against them because they're literally an international pack.

“So hopefully we can do what we train out there and sprinkle some of our good magic over them and see what we can do.”

Augustus missed three months of the season due to an ankle injury but feared it could have been worse.

“We initially thought that it was going to be worse and then I went to London to get a scan, and they said I've had this previous injury,” he said. “So I can play with it now and maybe I can get it fixed after the season, so that's our plan.”

Ulster: Jacob Stockdale, Werner Kok, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Zac Ward, Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak, Angus Bell, Tom Stewart, Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson (capt), Cormac Izuchukwu, David McCann, Sean Reffell, Juarno Augustus

Replacements: James McCormick, Sam Crean, Scott Wilson, Harry Sheridan, Bryn Ward, Conor McKee, Jake Flannery, Jude Postlethwaite