Keith Earls is in for Munster, Gordon D’Arcy is fit only for the Leinster bench, while a friend of the site makes his long awaited return to action for Connacht.
With the Munster backline badly in need of an injection of creativity, Keith Earls has been parachuted straight into the first XV for the Sunday morning clash with the Scarlets at Thomond Park. Elsewhere, Denis Leamy and Donncha O’Callaghan retain their places after impressive cameos against the same opposition last weekend.
Gordon D’Arcy has been named on the replacements bench for Leinster after picking up a minor niggle in training ahead of their meeting with Bath at the Aviva Stadium.
With Brian O’Driscoll out for the season, an injury to another international centre is the last thing Leinster need, but fortunately they are well stocked in that department and the combination of Eoin O’Malley and Fergus McFadden is not a bad alternative pairing.
As is often the case with Leinster, Eoin Reddan starts at home instead of Isaac Boss, while Devin Toner and Shane Jennings have also been summoned for first team duty.
Connacht are merely fighting for pride at this stage in the competition, but they have been boosted by the return to fitness of former Ireland international and friend of the site, Johnny O’Connor, to the side for this weekend’s clash with Gloucester. Eoin Griffin comes in for Kyle Tonetti in the only other change to the side from last week.
Lastly, Tom Court returns to the Ulster pack in what is an otherwise unchanged starting XV for the trip to Aironi on Saturday afternoon.
Check out all the teams and replacements in full below.
Fixtures:
Aironi v Ulster Saturday 1.30pm
Gloucester v Connacht Saturday 3.40pm
Leinster v Bath Saturday 6pm
Munster v Scarlets Sunday 12.45pm
Munster team v Llanelli Scarlets: D Hurley; J Murphy, K Earls, L Mafi, S Zebo; R O’Gara, C Murray; W du Preez, D Varley, BJ Botha; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (Captain); D Leamy, N Ronan, J Coughlan.
Replacements: D Fogarty, M Horan, S Archer, D Ryan, T O’Donnell, T O’Leary, I Keatley, D Barnes.
Leinster team v Bath: Rob Kearney; Isa Nacewa, Eoin O’Malley, Fergus McFadden, Luke Fitzgerald; Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan; Heinke van der Merwe, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross; Leo Cullen (Captain), Devin Toner; Sean O’Brien, Shane Jennings, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Cian Healy, Nathan White, Kevin McLaughlin, Rhys Ruddock, Isaac Boss, Ian Madigan, Gordon D’Arcy
Connacht team v Gloucester: Gavin Duffy (Captain); Mark McCrea, Eoin Griffin, Dave McSharry, Tiernan O’Halloran; Niall O’Connor, Frank Murphy; Brett Wilkinson, Ethienne Reynecke, Ronan Loughney; George Naoupu, Mike McCarthy; Dave Gannon, Johnny O’Connor, John Muldoon.
Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Dylan Rogers, Rodney Ah You, Mick Kearney, Eoin McKeon, Paul O’Donohoe, Matthew Jarvis, Kyle Tonetti
Ulster team v Aironi: A D’Arcy; A Trimble, D Cave, N Spence, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (Captain), D Tuohy; S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg.
Replacements: N Brady, P McAllister, A Macklin, T Barker, R Diack, P Marshall, P Jackson, S Terblanche
