Connacht Make One Change For Thomond Trip
Connacht have made one change to their side ahead of their Magners League clash with Munster at Thomond Park on Saturday (kick off: 7.30pm).
Troy Nathan comes into the back-line to form a centre partnership with Niva Ta’auso for the first time but Connacht are still waiting on a number of injury concerns to determine how the forwards will shape up.
Either Andrew Browne or Michael Swift could start in the second row alongside Andrew Farley.
At number 8 there is still a question mark over the fitness of Ray Ofisa, with Colm Rigney likely to deputise in his absence.
Connacht coach Michael Bradley told IrishRugby.ie: “Going into these last four games in the Magners (League), depending on how the results fall for us, two or three wins will get us into Europe. That’s what we’ve left to play for.
“You can see that there’s plenty of good, positive play once we get a fair shake up front. We proved against the Scarlets, Cardiff and the Dragons that we can be very, very competitive.”
Team captain John Muldoon said: “We ended up getting another hammering against Northampton (last week). It’s not a nice feeling because we have a quality team and we have to believe in ourselves, we need to start moving forward.
“I feel we’re not that far away, we’ve quality in this side. It’s just a matter of getting the results that we need to get us up there and challenging, and it would be nice to start that down in Thomond Park.”
CONNACHT (v Munster): Gavin Duffy; Fionn Carr, Niva Ta’auso, Troy Nathan, Liam Bibo; Ian Keatley, Frank Murphy; Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin, Ronan Loughney, Andrew Browne/Michael Swift, Andrew Farley, John Muldoon (capt), Johnny O’Connor, Colm Rigney/Ray Ofisa.
Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Brian McGovern, Michael Swift/David Gannon, Colm Rigney/David Nolan, Conor O’Loughlin, Andy Dunne, Mel Deane.