Ulster centre Luke Marshall believes his side can gain revenge for the defeat suffered against Saracens at Kingspan Stadium in November when they travel to Allianz Park to face the high-flying English side this afternoon (3.15pm).
Saracens go into the encounter as favourites, not only for the match, but also for the outright competition, with only Racing Metro rated their equals by any pundits and bookmakers.
But Marshall is taking comfort from the fact that Mark McCall’s men suffered their first defeat of the season against Harlequins in domestic competition last weekend, even if the loss was somewhat unfortunate.
“Things definitely went the way of Harlequins,” Marshall acknowledged.
“But I think the main thing is that they’re beatable.
“The fact that they were unbeaten up until then, hopefully that’s created a wee bit of doubt in their heads and if we can run them close up to the 80 minute, hopefully something will open and we can get the win.”
Marshall, who has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Stuart McCloskey in the Ulster midfield recently, senses an air of confidence amongst his team-mates.
The return of some big names - most notably Ireland international Jared Payne – has enhanced that positive mood, with the 24-year-old adding: “I think there’s a lot of belief, there’s a lot of confidence.
“We’re very confident that we can go over there and do a job and we're really excited by the challenge” - Luke Marshall
“We’ve had some rarely good results in the last two months and we’re really happy with the quality of rugby that we’re playing.
“Obviously now we’ve got some guys s coming back to fitness, some pretty key players.
“We’re very confident that we can go over there and do a job and we're really excited by the challenge.”
Victory for Saracens would guarantee they finish top of Pool One prior to next week's trip to four-time European champions Toulouse.
Mark McCall is confident his players will show an immediate response after that loss to Harlequins.
"This group of players in the past has been pretty good at dealing with the odd setback," the former Ulster boss said.
"We've got a big game to get our teeth stuck into against Ulster.
"They have players all over the field who are capable of winning games on both the domestic and international stage.
"In the past few seasons, Ulster have always been tough opponents for us, and they have made some real strides under Les Kiss in the last four or five weeks."
McCall fields seven of the eight Saracens players named earlier this week in Eddie Jones' England elite player squad, with full-back Alex Goode missing out because of a slight knock.
