Before Richie Murphy's Ulster can think about winning against Leinster at the Aviva this evening, they first must find a way to score.
Jacques Nienaber's defence hasn't been breached since 29 March, when Bongi Mbonambi scored a try for the Sharks in Durban, a game Leinster ground out to win 10-5 and cement their eight point lead at the top of the BKT United Rugby Championship table.
In total, it's been roughly 190 minutes of rugby since any team has scored a point against Leinster, with the province shutting out Harlequins and the Glasgow Warriors in the Champions Cup knockouts in recent weeks, winning the round of 16 and quarter-final by a combined score of 114-0.
"At this moment in time, Leinster look like the strongest team in Europe, possibly the strongest team in the world," the Ulster head coach said this week, ahead of this evening's Interpro.
With four games to go, Ulster's season is on a tightrope.
Three bonus-point wins in a row in the league have lifted them up to sixth in the table and has given their campaign a kiss of life, but they're part of a bloated middle tier of clubs in the URC that are fighting it out for the play-offs.
Leinster are well clear in first place, while Glasgow, the Bulls and the Sharks are also looking good for knockout rugby. The remaining four places are still up for grabs, with 10 clubs still able to make a reasonable case to take one.
Ulster's fixture list isn't kind. After this week's away trip to Leinster, they'll host the Sharks in Belfast next week, and the South Africans have brought their Springbok big-hitters on their northern hemisphere tour. An away trip to Munster and a final game at home to Edinburgh will have a big say on where they finish, with both sides also fighting for their play-off and Champions Cup spot.
"Every point is important now, we have four games left and if we win three of those four, we definitely qualify.
"If we win two, we could qualify so you want to get that done as soon as you can," Murphy added.
While Leinster's team selection this week has one eye on the Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints in two weeks, Leo Cullen has still picked a side arguably capable of beating anybody in the league, with 10 Ireland internationals in the starting team, including Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw and Joe McCarthy.
If the going gets tough, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan, RG Snyman, Max Deegan and Sam Prendergast are on deck among the replacements.
Down in Limerick, Munster welcome the Bulls to Thomond Park in a game that has the potential to set the narrative for their regular season run-in.
Two points ahead of Ulster in fifth, Ian Costello's side haven't given up hope of catching the Sharks, who are six points ahead of them (before Round 15) and currently hold the last of the home quarter-final places. The glass-half-empty perspective is that they're as close to 13th place Connacht as they are to the Sharks.
History has shown us that Munster save some petrol in the tank for the business end of the campaign, and they will lean on the experiences of their late-season runs in 2023 and 2024 as they look to finish strong in 2025.
Like Ulster, all four of their remaining games are against sides either in or fighting to be in the play-offs, and a win of any kind against the Bulls on Saturday could potentially leave them more than a bonus-point win ahead of the league's equator.
"We've three home games out of the next four and we have to get into the play-offs," Costello said this week.
"So we haven’t the time, it would consume you if we let it, so it was really about turning the page and moving on [from the defeat to Bordeaux].
"Genuinely it was very, very tough but by the time we got onto the pitch and we trained there was a lot of energy again in the building and there’s real evidence of a very strong foundation over the last month.
"We’ll see on Saturday did that come out but that was the chat today, that was the focus but we have to back it up on Saturday."
Win or lose, Munster and Ulster will have more opportunities to cement their play-off spots, but Connacht are at risk of being cut adrift if they don't pull off a shock result in Cape Town against the Stormers.
It's been a difficult month off the pitch at the province, with head coach Pete Wilkins stepping down as head coach this week, having been on 'sick leave' for the last four games. Scrum coach Cullie Tucker has been leading the management team during that period and will continue in interim charge for the rest of the season.
One of the best attacking teams in the league, their season has consistently been hindered by defence. Only six teams have scored more than their 341 points this season, but the other side of that coin is that only Dragons have conceded more.
Two of their final four games are away in South Africa, the first against the Stormers this afternoon, and they take on the 2022 champions with a depleted team after Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen, Josh Ioane, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Shayne Bolton and Denis Buckley all picked up injuries in recent weeks.
Anything less than a win in Cape Town, and their season is hanging by a thread.
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