Queen's targeting record 25th Senior Cup success against Instonians at Kingspan Stadium

It’s a third consecutive final for the students and after staying in the AIL second tier, assistant coach DJ Creighton is determined to end the season with silverware.

“We’re delighted to be in it again for a third year in a row,” said Creighton. “It is always something we look at at the start of the year and want to go out and win, so we are really pleased from that point of view that we are in the final on Saturday and we’re really looking forward to it.

“Definitely one of the first things we target is the Senior Cup – it has got so much history to it.

“We are just not going here on Saturday to finish our season off, we win to win this and we want to put in a performance that the club and the rest of the university can be really proud of, and hopefully come half-five on Saturday we can be celebrating with the Senior Cup.”

Instonians have a lot of ex-Queen’s players in their ranks and Creighton is anticipating a tough encounter.

“Fair play to Inst, they have had a serious run to get to the final,” he added. “To turn over Ballynahinch and Armagh in one season and in one competition is no easy task.

“They are obviously a very good side. I think from an Ulster rugby point of view it is brilliant to have two Belfast teams playing in this final and it makes for something that is going to be really exciting.

“This is the first time that we are going to have a fixture against them that has a real meaning to it. When you look at Instonians they have some many ex-Queen’s players playing for them.

“To be fair to all those players they were magnificent in their time at Queen’s and I, from a coaching point of view, could never have asked for any more of them during their time at Queen’s, but I suppose things are different now that they are all playing for Instonians.

"I’m delighted to see them continue to play together but certainly come Saturday all my allegiances will be with the 15 Queen’s players that take the pitch at the Kingspan.

“I’m really excited to see these guys play against them – I suppose you could say it was always going to happen at some stage.”

Queen’s had to dig deep in the in the semi-final, coming from 16 points down to beat Banbridge and staving off relegation in the league.

Creighton said: “This year’s squad of players have been brilliant to work with. It has not been an easy season to go into 1B and for us to have a relatively new squad and try to challenge in that league was always going to be difficult.

“Full credit to the guys that have joined Queen’s this year and the guys that have been here for a while as well; they have been really resilient and they have had to be to survive that game on Saturday and stay in 1B.

"I think that will stand us in really good stead going into next season but will put us in brilliant stead going ito this weekend as we are seriously battle-hardened.”