Edinburgh:
Scotland internationalist Magnus Bradbury has been named at blindside flanker for Edinburgh’s crucial Guinness PRO14 showdown with Ulster at BT Murrayfield on Friday night (12 April, kick-off 7.35pm).
The back-row replaces John Barclay – who drops to the bench – in the only alteration to the starting XV that claimed a valuable away win against Scarlets last weekend.
Ahead of this weekend’s highly anticipated Conference B encounter, Head Coach Richard Cockerill, said:
“We’ve got to win. It’s the same as last week. If we don’t, we’re relying on other results and miracles. We’ve just got to keep winning.
“Although Ulster were beaten by Glasgow, they were extremely good against Leinster the week before and they should have won. They’ve had a tough run in. They played in Dublin, Glasgow and now they come to us.
“We’ll put out our best team and we’ll both go as hard as we can to try and win. They’ve got a lot of quality, but we’ve got some pretty good players too.”
Ulster:
Dan McFarland and his coaching team have made three personnel changes to the starting XV that lost to Glasgow last weekend.
Iain Henderson returns to captain the side, while Nick Timoney and Abbey Insurance Academy winger Robert Baloucoune are also included.
Henderson is joined in the second row by Kieran Treadwell, with Jordi Murphy and Marcell Coetzee selected alongside Timoney in the back row. Rob Herring, Marty Moore and Eric O’Sullivan are retained in the front row.
John Cooney and Billy Burns continue on half-back duty, while Stuart McCloskey and Luke Marshall are again named in midfield. Baloucoune’s inclusion sees Rob Lyttle move to the left wing and Jacob Stockdale shift to fullback.
Ross Kane and Peter Nelson are recalled to the match day 23, with John Andrew, Andy Warwick, Alan O’Connor, Sean Reidy, David Shanahan and Angus Kernohan also among the replacements.
A win for Ulster against their Conference B rivals will be enough secure a place in the end-of-season play-offs.
(15-9): J Stockdale; R Baloucoune, L Marshall, S McCloskey, R Lyttle; B Burns, J Cooney;
(1-8): E O’Sullivan, R Herring, M Moore, I Henderson (Capt), K Treadwell, N Timoney, J Murphy, M Coetzee;
Replacements: J Andrew, A Warwick, R Kane, A O’Connor, S Reidy, D Shanahan, P Nelson, A Kernohan.
Check out highlights from their first encounter this season in Belfast:
