CONNACHT AND LEINSTER have named their teams for Friday night’s Heineken Champions Cup last-16 first leg at The Sportsground (8pm, BT Sport), with the hosts welcoming back three key men to their starting lineup and the visitors togging out a matchday 23 packed with internationals.
In what will be Connacht’s first ever European Cup knockout game, Andy Friend is bolstered by the return of Lions centre Bundee Aki, who hasn’t played for the western province since before his Six Nations involvement with Ireland. There is also a first start of the season for lock Gavin Thornbury, who returned from the bench in Treviso last weekend following an 11-month absence.
Club captain Jarrad Butler, who missed that crucial victory over Benetton through injury, returns to Friend’s starting lineup at eight.
Jack Carty will captain the side on matchday, however, starting at out-half outside fellow Ireland international Kieran Marmion.
“There’s a huge sense of excitement among all the players and management for tomorrow night,” Friend said. “These are the type of games you want to be involved in, and with a capacity crowd behind us it’s going to be a great occasion and one we firmly believe we can win.
“We have over 45 players training between our pros and integrated academy players so that’s a great place to be at this stage of the season, and it’s given the coaches some headaches for our squad selection as well.”
Just the 19 of Leo Cullen’s Leinster 23, meanwhile, are fully fledged internationals, and Leinster have rolled out all available big guns for the trip to Galway.
Johnny Sexton starts at out-half following an albeit excellent performance by Ross Byrne at Thomond Park last weekend. The captain is joined from the start at half-back by Luke McGrath, with Ireland’s first-choice scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park set to make a second-half impact off the bench.
Outside nine and 10, Leinster’s are unchanged from the side that crushed Munster in Limerick, with Jimmy O’Brien looking to pick up where he left off in European competition following his four-try haul against Bath in January.
The back row is also unchanged but Cullen has switched up his front five entirely with Cian Healy, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Ross Molony and the Connacht-bound Josh Murphy given starts.
The return leg between the sides takes place next Friday, 15 April, at the Aviva Stadium.
Connacht
- 15. Tiernan O’Halloran
- 14. John Porch
- 13. Tom Farrell
- 12. Bundee Aki
- 11. Mack Hansen
- 10. Jack Carty (Captain)
- 9. Kieran Marmion
- 1. Matthew Burke
- 2. Dave Heffernan
- 3. Finlay Bealham
- 4. Gavin Thornbury
- 5. Leva Fifita
- 6. Cian Prendergast
- 7. Conor Oliver
- 8. Jarrad Butler
Replacements
- 16. Dylan Tierney-Martin
- 17. Tietie Tuimauga
- 18. Jack Aungier
- 19. Oisín Dowling
- 20. Abraham Papali’i
- 21. Caolin Blade
- 22. Conor Fitzgerald
- 23. Sammy Arnold
Leinster
- 15. Hugo Keenan
- 14. Jimmy O’Brien
- 13. Garry Ringrose
- 12. Robbie Henshaw
- 11. James Lowe
- 10. Johnny Sexton (Captain)
- 9. Luke McGrath
- 1. Cian Healy
- 2. Dan Sheehan
- 3. Tadhg Furlong
- 4. Ross Molony
- 5. Josh Murphy
- 6. Caelan Doris
- 7. Josh van der Flier
- 8. Jack Conan
Replacements:
- 16. James Tracy
- 17. Ed Byrne
- 18. Michael Ala’alatoa
- 19. Devin Toner
- 20. Max Deegan
- 21. Jamison Gibson-Park
- 22. Ross Byrne
- 23. Ciarán Frawley
