Ulster and Leinster have a pretty good chance of winning a pot . . . they also have a sporting chance of falling into a heap as the finishing line approaches.

Neither team have the look of a side that has the sweet scent of victory teasing their nasal membranes. I haven't noticed too many players having to be muzzled for being too enthusiastic . . . no blood, no baying. Okay, long season, the autopilot's RPM counter doesn't do polar north and it's hard to rev the team up for some face-saving tupperware.

It is a given that most of the senior players will plateau. England in Croke Park and Australia and South Africa in Lansdowne are very hard to replicate in Rodney Parade and Hughenden. This is the time of the season when the needle on the graph is pretty much stuck to the floor and, in fairness, it manifests itself in some of the provincial performances over the last month or so.

When I played I used to get sick of fellas looking at me as I walked into the dressing room hoping to find a sign of what mood I was in. If I looked serious, well, then I was "up for it" and as a consequence they would be too. If I had a look that said "Did I leave the gas on or not?", well then we all might as well have stayed in the dressing room and sent John Joe to get a keg from the bar as quickly as possible.

I was an unlikely barometer and it was an onerous responsibility. One which I failed on a number of occasions. Shane Horgan is the barometer of this Leinster side. This writer thinks he is one of the finest players that this island has produced. But recently, the mercury has been kinda flat. Horgan (right) had a shocker against Glasgee and didn't improve that much in the Dragon's game.

Indeed, Horgan spent most of the match starting, sorting or settling a lot of the petty stuff that took place. In one sense it's good to go in and either back your teammate or else physically set a marker down.

One of my coaches told me once, "If you are not doing something, well, what are you doing?" Horgan was doing stuff but it wasn't what he was supposed to be doing. So what do his teammates think? He's such an influential player.

Leinster have been playing some fairly crap rugby recently. Is it symptomatic of something far more deep rooted? In December and January they played some scintillating stuff on soggy pitches in desperate conditions. Now the pitch is hard, the weather is glorious and the ball is dry.

The rugby is crap. Leinster haven't played the sort of rugby that they can against a full-strength side since they played Agen home and away.

Four months is a long time to be treading water, going backwards even.

The team's evolution has stalled . . . learning lessons is no longer acceptable from a team of this calibre and experience. When the team is not firing or performing you look at the coach.

Leinster had the Magners in the bag. The loss to Glasgow was unacceptable, particularly for those who were in a position where hot pokers would be prepared if Leinster did not produce something to reflect the level of investment put into the side.

After the Glasgow game Leinster CEO Mick Dawson went into the dressing room and let all and sundry know that their performance wasn't what was required at that juncture. A row ensued with coach Michael Cheika over who actually owned or was responsible for the team. The coach won, but not before any nuns, small children, pensioners and Swiss finishingschool graduates were asked to leave the room first.

The two protagonists had a love-in a few days later and all will be well-ishf if Leinster produce. If they don't, well, then more intrigue.

When Gary Ella was dispatched a few years ago most commentators remarked that the senior players had wielded their influence to get rid of him. Bloody right, the guy was not a good coach, nor could he handle his galacticos or his journeymen. The press were also 'shamefully' used to expedite the wishes of the players.

What the hell else are they there for? Most people in a position of influence could take up the cudgel and accelerate the process. Most people knew that the situation was beyond retrieving.

Funny so that an argument of reasonably minor proportions should get such airtime on the grapevine. It's only natural that the CEO should get pissed off after an insipid performance and equally only natural that the coach should tell him to get f***ed. With 30 people in the dressing room area, it's pretty hard to keep that one schtum.

There is a time and a place for these arguments to take their course. I don't think anyone is trying to orchestrate anything but it is now in the public domain that there is a frisson of negative energy there which should be sorted by those close to the action. Cheika has pretty much full control and the support of all his players. He now needs to get them to play. It is vitally important they win the Magners League and do it playing the sort of rugby you would expect Leinster to play. There seems to be too much emphasis on winning ugly, hanging tough and dogging it out on the road. These are euphemisms for playing like a gaggle of gout-infected septuagenarians. With three games to go, Leinster need to find themselves quickly or the off-field shenanigans will snowball.

In terms of investment, Leinster need to smarten up on the recruitment front.

When I mean smarten up, really what I'm saying is that if Leinster spend another penny on the likes of some of the players they have bought over the last couple of seasons, well the next 20 articles that I write will demand the head of all the people involved. They have got off to a very bad start. Ollie le Roux at 34 is a dreadful misallocation of funds . . . he is not Irish qualified and he will add nothing to the Leinster squad. Who was responsible for signing him? Why did the player advisory committee sanction him?

I look at those brought in to replace Leo Cullen . . . Bryce Williams, Adam Burns and Owen Finnegan . . . and I am totally perplexed. There is no solace in the fact that Cullen returns for Leinster at the end of the season. He has had an astonishing season for Leicester. A bit like Trevor Brennan, he has had to go away to get a medal of any kind. Shane Jennings should never have been let go either. The philosophy of letting our home-grown Irish qualified players go for the sake of 10,000 or so and paying six figures for players who aren't eligible to play for Ireland is beyond me.

Stephen Keogh and Trevor Hogan have performed well for Leinster without being world beaters. To my mind, Cullen and Jennings are far superior players. They will complement each other though.