Connacht Rugby Head Coach Pat Lam has announced his match day 23 for tomorrow’s Guinness PRO12 round 13 clash away to Ospreys and Roscommon’s Jack Carty has recovered from a knock to retain his place.
Carty received the calf injury while training with the Irish squad in Carton House last weekend.
There are three personnel changes to the starting team that lined out against Munster six days ago. With Kieran Marmion rested this week, scrum half John Cooney makes a timely return from injury to start in an otherwise unchanged backline.
Up front, the back row is changed with the introduction of Sean O’Brien at blindside flanker and Naulia Dawai at Number 8 for his first Connacht start.
Tom McCartney will captain the side in the absence of John Muldoon who had, up to now, started every game this season but was ruled out this week with a hamstring injury.
From the bench, Galway man Eoin McKeon is in line to make his 100th Connacht appearance if he is called upon in Wales tomorrow afternoon.
Commenting on the upcoming game, Pat Lam said:
“There is real excitement in the camp as we face another great challenge away to Ospreys who are flying high in the PRO12 championship. They have one of the best all-round games as well as the most successful record at home this season, highlighted by their 29 points earned out of a possible 30.
“Our focus remains on improving our game and if we can nail our execution and detail, it will give us a great chance of challenging for the points on offer.”
The Connacht Rugby Squad in full to to face Ospreys is as follows:
(Connacht caps in brackets)
15 Tiernan O’Halloran (115)
14 Niyi Adeolokun (46)
13 Rory Parata (23)
12 Peter Robb (23)
11 Matt Healy (81)
10 Jack Carty (69)
9 John Cooney (28)
1 Denis Buckley (105)
2 Tom McCartney (53) (captain)
3 Finlay Bealham (69)
4 Quinn Roux (44)
5 James Cannon (6)
6 Sean O’Brien (28)
7 Jake Heenan (45)
8 Naulia Dawai (3)
Replacements:
16 Dave Heffernan (72)
17 JP Cooney (41)
18 John Andress (1)
19 Lewis Stevenson (9)
20 Eoin McKeon (99)
21 Caolin Blade (35)
22 Danie Poolman (76)
23 Ciaran Gaffney (1)
Kick Off is at 1.30pm and the game is live on SKY Sports 1.