Ireland prop Marcus Horan has been demoted to the bench ahead of Munster's European Cup clash with Llanelli Scarlets on Sunday.

Horan is replaced by Federico Pucciariello, while backrow Niall Ronan has overcome a hamstring injury and is named on the bench instead of James Coughlan.

Wales internationals Stephen Jones and Alix Popham will lineout for Scarlets at Thomond Park and the latter is relishing the challenge.

"It will be great to play there," he said. "We just have to get in their faces, stop them playing and take our game to them.

"It will be a great experience for the boys who haven't played at Thomond Park before and it should excite them. We all want to go out there and produce a winning performance.

"Training has gone well and we have worked on the areas that didn't go so well in the last game. So I'm sure we will produce the goods on Sunday. We know we are out of this cup but playing in Munster will help us in other games this season and bring us together as a group."

Munster: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara capt, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll;  D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley. 

Replacements: F Sheahan, M Horan, D Ryan, N Ronan, G Hurley, P Warwick, K Lewis.

LLanelli Scarlets:  M Stoddart; M Jones, R King, J Davies, N Brew; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, J Hayter, B Broster, V Cooper, A Eustace, S Easterby (capt), A Popham, J Bater.

Replacements: D George, D Manu, S MacLeod, N Thomas, G Thomas, G Cattle, C Thomas.