Given a few days off around Christmas Day, Caelan Doris conceded he was happy enough not to be out in the lashings of rain in Thomond Park last Tuesday.
Leinster came through a real dog fight against Munster.
"Pretty awful conditions, one for the purists," he tells RTÉ Sport of the 9-3 win.
"It's interesting to have a different perspective or a different type of game every now and again. A proper arm wrestle of a game."
Instead, the 25-year-old Ireland back row was enjoying some down time in his native Mayo; he starts against Ulster in one of 14 changes to their line-up today at the RDS (5.15pm).
So how was Christmas?
"It was nice to get home, I went back on the 23rd," explains Doris, who will earn his 73rd Leinster cap today, starting at number 8.
"[I] drove my brother and his girlfriend, who were back from LA.
"The whole family was back together, which was nice and only came up [to Dublin on Wednesday] evening so it was a good four days at home, pretty chilled for the most part.
"A few walks on the beach, an odd pint but nothing too hectic. I'm not the biggest fan of wine but I was forced to have a glass [with dinner]."
It was a well-deserved rest for last season's players’ player of the year and now it’s time to get down to the serious business of stopping Ulster’s mini revival that includes victory over the Top14 leaders Racing 92 in the Champions Cup and a narrow win over Connacht in the BKT URC in their last two outings.
"Their attack is a pretty tricky one to deal with so trying to shut them down with our defence is going to be an exciting challenge," says Doris, whose side top the table with only a single defeat to their name this season.
"We've seen some of their images today and their unpredictability in their attack, how they look to play the game and take advantage of defences when there's numbers down or fold-decisions aren't right.
"John Cooney, in particular is very good at spotting them.
"They have good poachers throughout their side too, Nick Timoney, Tom O'Toole, the Rea brothers are all very strong in that area."
Dan McFarland makes five changes to the team, seventh in the standings, that beat Connacht 20-19.
His side have scored four of their last six tries from tap-penalties and Doris says Leinster have been doing their homework to neutralise that threat.
"We've got a pretty good plan around how we deal with those in general but it's been pretty effective for them of late," he says of Ulster, who have only won two of their last 21 matches at the RDS.
"That maul one was pretty interesting, that we hadn't really seen before so there'll be tweaks to our usual plan around how we deal with that."
Scrum coach Robin McBryde said: "You need to put a plan in place. They had good success against Racing with a couple of good moves.
"We benefitted from spending a little more time and applying more detail.
"It makes sense, a lot of teams have good maul defence and kicking to the corner isn't always an option. When you are awarded a penalty in the middle of the field it's a good ploy to have in your armoury.
"It's one we've got to work on, both in attack and defence. We are aware of ones they've scored from so we'll be working hard to make sure we don't fall for one of those tricks ourselves."
Meanwhile, lock Joe McCarthy (above), man of the match against Munster, starts on the bench today and he’s a player that has impressed Doris since making his debut two seasons ago.
On the 22-year-old five-cap Ireland international, he says: "He's very enthusiastic, a very positive lad. He's got a good head on his shoulders, he's very focused on improving and is aware of where he can improve.
"He was quite raw a year or two ago when he first came onto the scene but has improved massively and is becoming much more of all-round player.
"He's a beast as well, he's properly inflated, he's a good one to have around."
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