Meanwhile, uncapped Leinster back-row Will Connors has been drafted into Andy Farrell's squad.

Donal Lenihan looks at the recipe for opening day success in the 2020 Six Nations.

DAN McFarland was looking forward to a day of watching rugby on the couch yesterday as the extent of the challenge awaiting Ulster in the spring slowly unfolded in front of his eyes.

Ulster secured the home win they needed against Bath to qualify for the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals for a second consecutive season.

Nash has been named to start on the wing as Keith Earls misses out due to a minor knee injury in one of two changes to Johann van Graan's side.

Before Ulster start getting ahead of themselves with giddy thoughts about a home quarter-final in the Champions Cup this season, beware the Clermont back three.

On a night when personal rivalries were under scrutiny, Ulster won the individual and collective battles against Munster to stretch their unbeaten home record at Kingspan Stadium to 19 games.

Joey Carbery makes his first start of the season at out-half.

Will Addison returns from a four-week suspension for Ulster who are on a mission to avenge last year’s home loss to Connacht.

There's no room for Rob Kearney, Seán Cronin, Jordi Murphy, Jack Carty, John Ryan or Kieran Marmion – with newly eligible Jamison Gibson-Park jumping ahead of the Connacht man at scrum-half.

With the Six Nations kicking off in less than two months, it is the first squad meet-up since the national team returned from Japan.

After a year when everything he touched turned to gold, 2019 has not been the follow-up act that Jacob Stockdale had hoped for, but it is one he was prepared for.

This time last year Ulster used the back-to-back Champions Cup games against the Scarlets as the launchpad for the rest of the season.

Brendan O’Brien Connacht coach Andy Friend has sounded a highly encouraging note on Bundee Aki’s contract situation.

Ulster will be without Will Addison for their back-to-back Heineken Champions Cup games with Harlequins.

Ulster squeezed out a vital 17-16 victory at Bath in their opening match in Pool Three of the European Champions Cup.

Stuart McCloskey says Ulster must “have a bit of fear” to extract the optimum performance from themselves in today’s Champions Cup opener at The Rec.

Keith Earls will make his first Munster appearance of the season in tomorrow's Champions Cup opener against the Ospreys.

The competition in Ulster’s back three means a shiny new three-year contract guarantees Rob Lyttle nothing — but he is more than willing to fight for every chance he can get.

The improvement in Ulster’s away form in Europe last season under Dan McFarland is something the head coach wants to see maintained and, if possible, bettered as they head into the unknown.

Rob Herring will return from Ireland duty to captain Ulster in tomorrow's Pro14 clash against Zebre.

Those newcomers are among five changes by Johann van Graan to the side which lost their last Pro14 game 40-16 to the Cheetahs.

Henshaw, who played only 80 minutes during pre-season, in the final warm-up game against Wales in Dublin on September 7, was set to go for a scan this morning.

You never know who you might bump into in Carton House during an Ireland camp.

This Saturday’s game against Wales may mark the start of Jonathan Sexton’s season but it will mark the last time that an Ireland team takes to the field in Dublin under the watchful eye of Joe Schmidt.

It is a well-balanced Ireland squad, assembled by Joe Schmidt in forensic detail, with the intention of negotiating a successful seven-week World Cup campaign.

Joe Schmidt has spent four years building a greater strength in depth into the Ireland squad but Jonathan Sexton knows that the success of such endeavours will be judged on how the team fares at the World Cup.

So now the real work begins. The debates over squad selection are over, at least inside the Irish camp, and now comes the business end of Joe Schmidt’s preparations for Japan and the 2019 World Cup.

Jean Kleyn: No matter what Agustin Pichot thinks, the South African-born Munster lock has qualified by right and earned his place the hard way after three years of acclimatisation in Limerick.

Joe Schmidt on ...

Ireland’s deep backline resources for the forthcoming World Cup campaign have been underlined by the quality of the players Joe Schmidt has decided to leave at home.

Joe Schmidt described the difficulty of narrowing his Ireland 2019 World Cup squad down from 45 over the course of the summer before making his final cut to bring the number to 31 on Monday.

The IRFU named the group that will travel to Japan today, six days earlier than planned, after the shock demotion was leaked.

In another unexpected move, head coach Schmidt preferred Luke McGrath as his back-up scrum-half over Conor Murray’s long-standing number two Kieran Marmion.

Devin Toner is expected to be a shock omission from Ireland’s 31-man World Cup squad.

Ireland supporters will have breathed a little easier on Saturday night following this victory at the Principality Stadium.

Jack Carty got the official prize, but who was your man-of-the-match?

Jacob Stockdale’s interception of a wayward Aaron Shingler offload on 28 minutes was expertly finished by the Ireland wing to notch his second try of the first-half and establish a 12-point cushion that allowed the Irish to release the pressure valve that had been tightening for the past week.

Simon Lewis looks at how Wales and Ireland shape up ahead of their World Cup warm-up.

Joe Schmidt has urged his players not to go into their shells when Ireland get their chance to atone for their Twickenham nightmare against Wales tomorrow.

Munster out-half Joey Carbery is part of the 40-man squad flying to Portugal today for an eight-day warm-weather training camp.

Ultan Dillane and Rory Scannell became the first players to be jettisoned from Ireland’s World Cup planning as Joe Schmidt’s training squad was trimmed ahead of Saturday’s opening summer Test against Italy.

Johnny Sexton’s thumb sprain is not expected to stop the Ireland star facing Italy in Ireland’s opening World Cup warm-up game next month.

The long road starts here as the race to make Ireland’s World Cup squad for Japan this September ramped up, after Joe Schmidt named a 44-player training squad.