FOUR-TIME EUROPEAN Cup winners Toulouse’s star New Zealander fly-half Luke McAlister was named in the starting line-up for their quarter-final with two-time champions Munster in Limerick today.
The 30-year-old former All Black star — capped 30 times at fly-half and centre till he joined Toulouse in 2011 — had originally been named on the replacements bench as he is just returning from two weeks of treatment on his back but has been ultimately preferred to French veteran Lionel Beauxis.
McAlister, who signed an extension to his contract in February that will see him tied to the club till 2016, has had an injury-plagued season having missed three-and-a-half months after rupturing a tendon in his biceps.
In another change to a Toulouse squad, which is battling to even make the domestic championship play-offs after an inconsistent season, French international flanker Yannick Nyanga failed a late fitness test on a sprained right ankle and is replaced on the bench by former France fullback Clement Poitrenaud.
The match — the first of the quarter-finals this weekend — kicks-off at 1230.