Conan captains Leinster side for URC clash with Ulster

RG Snyman is among the Leinster replacements.

Thu, 28 Nov, 2024 - 12:04

Cian Locke

Head coach Leo Cullen has named his Leinster to take on Ulster United Rugby Championship at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night (kick-off, 7.35pm).

With 11 changes from the team who beat Lions last month, there are a number of returning faces from injury injury.

Jack Conan comes back to captain the side while Jimmy O'Brien, Jordan Larmour and John McKee have all recovered from injury to take their respective places in the starting 15.

Andrew Osborne joins Larmour and O'Brien in the back three as Liam Turner is named in midfield alongside out-half/centre Charlie Tector.

Ross Byrne gets the nod at ten, where he will be partnered by Luke McGrath at scrum-half.

On his return from injury, McKee will be joined by Jack Boyle and Rabah Slimani in the front row, while Diarmuid Mangan will make his first appearance of the season alongside Brian Deeny in the second row.

Conan will captain the side from number eight, with Will Connors and Max Deegan completing the back row.

Lee Barron is also fit again and takes his place among the replacements, with Michael Milne and Rory McGuire providing the rest of the front-row cover.

RG Snyman, who played in all three of South Africa's victorious autumn internationals this month, has also been named among the replacements, with James Culhane and Scott Penny completing a 6-2 split.

Fintan Gunne and Harry Byrne take the final spots in the matchday 23.

For Ulster, Alan O’Connor captains Richie Murphy's side while hooker Tom Stewart returns from a long-term ankle injury to take his place on the bench.

Leinster's Cullen said: "If you think back to when we used to play in PRO12, you would have had 11 home and 11 away games — so 22 games — whereas now you have 18 regular season games. It doesn't sound like a huge amount, but four games over the course of a season is quite a chunk to take out. I know there's another playoff game that would replace some of that.

"But even in Europe, there used to be six Champions Cup pool games, now there's four regular pool games and one extra playoff game.

"It's more geared towards playoffs and less around the regular season games, so there's a little bit less margin for error when it comes to seedings later in the season.

"If you think, we lost our two regular season games against Ulster and if you win one of those games, then you don't have to travel to South Africa for a semi-final. We need to make sure we understand the importance of every point."

Ulster: S Moore; W Kok, B Carson, J Postlethwaite, M Lowry; A Morgan, N Doak; E O'Sullivan, J McCormick, S Wilson; A O'Connor, K Treadwell; J McNabney, N Timoney, D McCann.

Replacements: T Stewart, A Warwick, C Barrett, H Sheridan, M Rea, J Cooney, J Humphreys, B Moxham.

Leinster: J O’Brien; J Larmour, L Turner, C Tector, A Osborne; R Byrne, L McGrath; J Boyle, J McKee, R Slimani; D Mangan, B Deeny; M Deegan, W Connors, J Conan.

Replacements: L Barron, M Milne, R McGuire, RG Snyman, J Culhane, F Gunne, H Byrne, S Penny.