They have won 13 of their last 15 home games in the competition – but did suffer defeat in their most recent Heineken Champions Cup match at the Kingspan Stadium, when they faced Stade Toulousain. However, the Irish province will be reassured to note that they have not lost consecutive home games in the Heineken Champions Cup since 2014, when they lost to Saracens and then RC Toulon. 

The Pool A encounter kicks off at 8pm UK time in Belfast, and is available to watch on BT Sport and beIN SPORTS. 

Other key facts: 

• This will be the sixth clash between Ulster and Northampton in the Heineken Champions Cup (Ulster have won two with Northampton winning three) – but it’s the first meeting since the pool stage in 2012/13 – when each club picked up an away victory. 
• Northampton have won only two of their 10 away games against Irish teams in the Heineken Champions Cup, losing eight, but one of those wins came against Ulster, 10-9 in December 2012. They have lost their last three trips to Ireland, though, by an average margin of 31 points. 
• Northampton (2/2) and Ulster (7/7) were two of seven teams to record a 100% goalkicking success rate in the opening round of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup; overall, only Racing 92 (8) made more successful placekicks than the Irish province. 
• Ulster’s James Hume topped the charts for the most offloads in the opening round of the 2021/22 Heineken Champions Cup with four, while only Antoine Dupont (11) beat more defenders than the 23-year-old centre (8). 

Quotes: 

Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper told the BBC: “The very top teams in Europe and in domestic leagues are the teams that have big results and then back them up the next week. If we want to be a team that sits at the top table then that is what we need to do. 

“You want to find that lovely balance where you win but you are still looking to push your game on and not be completely satisfied. We know we are not the finished article by any stretch, so we have got a lot that we can keep striving to get better at.” 

Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd: “We’re going to have to look very carefully at those guys that we’ve been nurturing along for a couple of weeks now. We might have to give them a bit of time off to get them right for the next block, but we’ll take the best team we can to Ulster who are fit to play, and we know that we need to get some points from that game if we want to stay in the hunt in this competition.”