The South African team, who have been preparing in Dublin this week, have opted for consistency with Director of Rugby, Jake White, selecting an unchanged starting lineup to the one that beat the Cell C Sharks in last weekend’s quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld.

The side from Tshwane has made four changes to their bench, with experienced Springbok hooker, Bismarck du Plessis, providing cover from the bench, alongside loosehead prop Simphiwe Matanzima and loose forward, WJ Steenkamp.

The Vodacom Bulls will also see the return of Blitzbok speedster Kurt-Lee Arendse, who will be on the bench this week after being sidelined by a finger injury over the past few weeks.

The team from Pretoria are expecting a tough challenge against a Leinster side that has dominated during the league stages, and also showed their intentions of dominating the knockout stages with a forceful performance last weekend when they defeated Glasgow Warriors in the quarter-final.

“Leinster are a phenomenal side that is very well-coached and are full of international players, said White.

“You look at their bench and they have players who have more caps for the club than the entire Vodacom Bulls team combined. So, we are definitely up against a quality side, and it will be a great challenge at the RDS Arena.”

Leinster have named Irish internationals Robbie Henshaw and Jack Conan in their starting XV, with Johnny Sexton on the bench. All three are experienced Test players and have represented the British & Irish Lions, with a combined total of 189 Ireland caps between them.

The match will kick off at 20h35 SA time (19h35 UK time) and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.

Vodacom Bulls: 15 Canan Moodie, 14 David Kriel, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Madosh Tambwe, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Arno Botha, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Simphiwe Mantanzima, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 WJ Steenkamp, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Morné Steyn, 23 Kurt-Lee Arendse.

Leinster: 15 Jimmy O’Brien; 14 Jordan Larmour, 13 Garry Ringrose; 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Rory O’Loughlin, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park; 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Caelan Doris, 5 James Ryan (captain), 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadgh Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter. Replacements: 16 Seán Cronin, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Michael Ala’alatoa, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Ryan Baird, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Johnny Sexton, 23 Ciarán Frawley.