Leo Cullen says Leinster's derby with Munster hasn't lost any of its magic, even if his side have dominated the fixture in recent seasons.
Leinster have won 15 of the last 18 meetings between the sides, are heavy favourites to continue that winning run tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium (5.15pm, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), with the visitors hit by a number of key injuries.
A healthy crowd of 40-45,000 people are expected at Lansdowne Road, with the home side including frontline internationals Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, Caelan Doris, Johnny Sexton and Garry Ringrose in their line-up.
"There's going to be 45,000 people here tomorrow and when we started off in the old Dooradoyle days there'd be 350 people there," he said.
"It's a huge occasion, the nature of the week-on-week - that's the challenge.
"But I said it after the game [against Connacht] last week, for Irish rugby it has to be a point of difference; the way the provinces are supported, the sense of identity that each provincial team has - and they have their own unique identity.
"It's important we celebrate that, we're expecting a real, physical challenge and that's what we've prepared for this week because we think that's coming from Munster.
"You can see how hotly contested the derby games have been before now, we were a bit fortunate to get out with a win against Connacht last weekend. Parts of our performance were good, other parts we feel like there's a good bit to go and that's what we'll focus on this week."
Peter O'Mahony, Tadhg Beirne and Craig Casey all joined Munster's extensive injury list this week, eight changes made from last week's win against the Bulls.
And Cullen says while he's been aware of the province's injury struggles this week, he hasn't allowed it distract from his own team's preparations.
"We heard some reports about a few injuries, and that's the challenge. You think some of the squads were pretty thin at the start of the season, which always places a bit more pressure on everybody else. Some teams will come through that better than others.
"We were ready for anything in terms of selection, because we heard a few rumblings and rumours about the potential guys who were maybe missing, and we tried to prepare accordingly.
"Eighty percent of it is you have to focus on yourselves, and you have one eye on what the opposition are doing, but you have to make sure you get your house in order, that's what we’re doing this week.
"There's some good young players [for Munster] who featured in the Emerging Ireland tour, some of them came back last week and gave a great account of themselves against a good, physical Bulls team.
"We know they can deal with the physical part, so for us it's to make sure we impose ourselves on the game well."
While Leinster have been able to name a strong team, they're not without their own injury issues, with Hugo Keenan, James Lowe and Jordan Larmour's absences seeing Ciarán Frawley included at full-back.
And Cullen is expecting Frawley to fit in at 15 just as well as he has at out-half and centre.
"Ciarán's a great footballer, we have had some disruptions and injuries to the back-three at the moment and we've a back three there with Jamie Osborne on the wing there, Jimmy (O'Brien) has moved on to the right.
"Ciarán's come back in after that knock to his shoulder, he's come off the bench and played 10 minutes last week; he gives us extra distribution, he's another pair of hands and a very good broken field runner as well.
"He's played 15 in the past for us, it's good with Johnny [Sexton], Robbie [Henshaw] and Garry [Ringrose] - there's plenty of experience in the team.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how Ciarán goes."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch Leinster v Munster in the BKT United Rugby Championship on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1, or follow our live blog on RTE.ie
