Friend insists Connacht still have plenty to play for

Though the province are out of contention for Rainbow Cup silverware, Andy Friend wants a number of his stars to catch the eye of Irish management ahead of the summer tour.

Connacht coach Andy Friend

Connacht’s slim hopes of reaching the Rainbow Cup final ended in Treviso last weekend but coach Andy Friend says several of his players are in contention for inclusion in the Irish squad to play the USA and Japan this summer and he wants them to enhance their claims this evening.

Ospreys still have an outside chance of making the Rainbow Cup final and that will ensure some edge to the Friday teatime kick-off (6pm) at the Sportsground on an occasion when Connacht hooker Shane Delahunt will make his 100th appearance.

Bundee Aki, in only his second game since March, will continue to build up game-time ahead of the Lions tour, while Alex Wootton will hope to bring the curtain down on a great maiden season which saw him score 11 tries in 20 games. He starts at full-back for the second time this season.

Tom Daly is one of the players hoping to catch Andy Farrell’s eye and he will partner Aki in the centre hoping to crown a superb campaign by the Carlow native, while scrum-half Caolin Blade is another hoping to impress the Irish management when he partners Jack Carty. A return to the Irish squad by Carty could see him come up against his younger brother Luke who has been included in the initial USA squad.

"One of the things is that the players are very aware there's an Irish squad being named in a week or two weeks' time, so we've got a chunk of players who I believe are able to be named in that,” said Friend. But performance is everything, you've got to put your hand up and there's motivation in that. There's also motivation and pride in the jersey and what we're about. We've had real highs and real lows this season but normally when we've had a low, we've bounced straight back."

CONNACHT: A Wootton; P Sullivan, B Aki, T Daly, B O’Donnell; J Carty; C Blade; J Duggan, S Delahunt, D Robertson-McCoy; N Murray, U Dillane; C Prendergast, J Butler, E Masterson.

Replacements: J Murphy, M Burke, J Aungier, O Dowling, S Masterson, K Marmion, C Fitzgerald, S Arnold.

OSPREYS: D Evans; D Cross, T Thomas-Wheeler, J Hawkins, L Morgan; S Myler, R Webb; N Smith, S Parry, T Botha; A Beard, B Davies; W Griffiths, M Morris, E Roots.

Replacements: I Phillips, G Thomas, M Fia, R Davies, S Cross, R Morgan-Williams, L Price, M Nagy.

Referee: M Adamson (Scotland).