Now in his sixth season with Ulster, Ruan Pienaar says he appreciates just how satisfying an inter-provincial win over Leinster is for the players involved.
Ulster almost certainly assured themselves of a play-off place in the Guinness Pro12 with a game to spare after a 30-6 win over Leo Cullen’s side at the Kingspan Stadium in a game that saw two yellow cards for the visitors.
Second-half tries from Jared Payne and Paddy Jackson added to a first-half penalty try against a Leinster team that are still in control of their own destiny for home advantage in the last four.
Ulster have had a mixed bag of inter-provincial results this season. The 1999 European champions lost home and away to Munster, while the home side came out on top on both occasions when they clashed with Connacht.
“These games have got something special and an extra edge in it"
A solitary Jackson penalty was all they had to show for their 8-3 loss in the RDS earlier this season but the Springbok admitted this was arguably one of their best 80-minute performance of the season.
“This was one of our better performances this season,” he told RTÉ Sport.
“We have been a little inconsistent in the way we have performed and to put up a performance like that at this stage of the season under pressure was really good for us.
“Leinster is a really good team so we are happy with the win.”
The 88-cap international has been a revelation since he joined from the Sharks in 2010 and collected yet another man-of-the-match accolade as he marshalled the team from the scrum-half position.
Pienaar says he fully understands the significance of the game to both sets of players.
“I’ve been here long enough to know what this means to the boys and to the Leinster lads as well.
“These games have got something special and an extra edge in it and to get the win is really pleasing.”
Leinster trailed by just four points after the break as the visitors rallied following the yellow card to Rob Kearney for a challenge on Pienaar with Johnny Sexton keeping them in touch with two penalties.
Pienaar revealed that the half-time team-talk centered on capitalising on their opportunities as they arose.
“We probably gave them too much ball in the second quarter, so we just thought [at half-time] we’d have to keep the ball when we get hold of it in the second half and attack them a little more and I think we did that well.
“We didn’t captialise in the first half when Rob Kearney was sent off for 10 minutes and gave them too much ball. I thought we handled well when Luke Fitzgerald went off.
“There’s still one more tough game to play but hopefully we’ll make the play-offs.”
