Connacht v Edinburgh: Teams
Connacht academy prop Denis Buckley earns his first competitive start when facing Edinburgh on Friday.
Last Updated: 23/02/12 1:25pm
Connacht academy prop Denis Buckley earns his first competitive start when facing Edinburgh on Friday.
The 22-year-old has made five appearances to date but with the absence of Brett Wilkinson, who is involved in the RBS Six Nations, Buckley will start at the Sportground.
The only other change to the Connacht starting line-up sees the return of Frank Murphy to scrum-half.
Edinburgh head coach Michael Bradley will make his first return to his former club but states it will be "business as usual" on Friday.
He said: "On a personal level I've a lot of fond memories from my time at Connacht and am looking forward to going back but, from a performance perspective, I know exactly how tough it is for teams to take any points away from the Sportground.
"I know the set-up and side very well and have naturally tried to use that to our advantage as we've prepared for this match, however, our emphasis has, as ever, been on how we need to play to win, rather than on any sort of inside knowledge.
"When the game kicks off tomorrow it will be business as usual, with our focus fully on coming away with the win."
Bradley has made four changes to the starting line-up from their away loss to the Dragons last weekend.
Changes include Chris Paterson, Jim Thompson and Gregor Hunter starting at full-back, outside-centre and stand-off respectively, with Andrew Kelly at hooker.
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Tom Brown, 13 Jim Thompson, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Gregor Hunter, 9 Chris Leck, 1 Kyle Traynor, 2 Andrew Kelly, 3 Jack Gilding, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 5 Sean Cox, 6 Stuart McInally, 7 Roddy Grant (c), 8 Netani Talei.
Replacements: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Mike MacDonald, 18 Ulises Gamboa, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Alex Black, 22 Phil Godman, 23 Dougie Fife.
Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy (c), 14 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 13 Kyle Tonetti, 12 Henry Fa'afili, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Niall O'Connor, 9 Frank Murphy, 1 Denis Buckley, 2 Adrian Flavin, 3 Ronan Loughney, 4 Michael Swift, 5 Mike McCarthy, 6 John Muldoon, 7 Eoghan Grace, 8 George Naoupu.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Dylan Rogers/Brett Wilkinson, 18 Stewart Maguire, 19 Mick Kearney, 20 Ray Ofisa, 21 Paul O'Donohoe, 22 Matthew Jarvis, 23 Eoin Griffin