Kidney selects strong Munster side

Team news:   Munster coach Declan Kidney has called on a number of his top stars for the province's trip to Glasgow for their…

Team news:  Munster coach Declan Kidney has called on a number of his top stars for the province's trip to Glasgow for their Celtic Magners League game at Firhill tomorrow night.

John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan, David Wallace, Jerry Flannery, Marcus Horan and Denis Leamy are all available, but Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara will not feature.

Hayes, O'Callaghan and Wallace are named in the starting line-up along with Frank Sheahan and Peter Stringer, who both came on as second half replacements last time out in the game against Ospreys, while Flannery, Horan and Leamy are on the bench alongside Keith Earls and Mark Melbourne.

In total the coach has made eight changes, two positional, to the side that started that day in the Liberty Stadium. Rua Tipoki moves to 13 with Lifeimi Mafi wearing the number 12 jersey, while the return of Hayes sees Tony Buckley switch to loosehead prop.

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O'Callaghan takes over duties from Melbourne as Niall Ronan is rested with Wallace coming at openside.

Despite losing to Cardiff last time out Connacht coach Michael Bradley has named an unchanged starting XV ahead of their encounter with Edinburgh at the Sportsground.

Connacht travelled to the Arms Park a fortnight ago and lost 30-16 but Bradley has kept faith in his side. The only changes in personnel see Adrian Flavin and Andrew Farley recalled to the bench after both have recovered from injury.

The home fixture will come as a welcome reprieve for the western province after contesting the last three rounds on the road without a win. The closest they came was a narrow 16-15 defeat at Glasgow earlier this month.

Connacht opened their season at the Sportsground with a 22-7 win over the Dragons in September and will be hoping home support can help them to victory tomorrow night with kick-off at 6.30pm. This corresponding fixture last season produced a thrilling 22-all draw.

Munster: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; T Buckley, F Sheahan, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; A Quinlan, D Wallace, A Foley (C)

Replacements:J Flannery, M Horan, M Melbourne, D Leamy, T O'Leary, J Manning, K Earls

Connacht:  G Duffy; O Treviranus, M Deane, A Wynne, K Matthews; T Donnelly, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, J Fogarty, R Morris; M Swift, D Gannon; R Ofisa, J O'Connor, J Muldoon (C)

Replacements:  A Flavin, B McGovern, A Farley, M McCarthy, C O'Loughlin, P Durcan, D Yapp