IRFU provincial and national age grade coaches - Under-18s, Under-19s and Under-20s - and IRFU elite player development staff from the four provinces gathered recently to review their experiences, discuss challenges and align closer to ensure the development of more effective elite players across the IRFU Elite Player Pathway.

Naoupu Gets The Nod For Connacht

Connacht head coach Eric Elwood has announced his starting line-up and replacements to face Ulster in Saturday's RaboDirect PRO12 derby match at the Sportsground (kick-off 5.15pm).

The selected side remains largely unchanged from that which defeated the Newport Gwent Dragons two weeks ago, with just one change to the starting fifteen.

George Naoupu will don the number 8 jersey with John Muldoon moving back to his more regular position of blindside flanker.

The replacements bench sees Johnny O'Connor return to the squad. He has been out of action since fracturing his eye-socket against Leinster on New Year's Day.

Young centre Eoin Griffin also makes the bench having missed the Dragons match with a knee injury.

Speaking about the selection, the province's head coach Eric Elwood said: "Looking back on our last two performances we had a very good effort against Munster, just not the result we wanted. We had the same team out against the Dragons and to be fair to the boys they were excellent.

"So, there are not too many changes. In saying that there's one positional change and it's great to welcome George back for such an important game.

"He's been a big player for us all year so that's a big boost for us. It's great as well to have Johnny O'Connor and Eoin Griffin back for such an important derby match."

There are a number of tickets still available for the interprovincial game. They can be purchased from www.connachtrugby.ie or from the Connacht Rugby Offices on College Road, Galway.

CONNACHT (v Ulster): Gavin Duffy (capt); Tiernan O'Halloran, Kyle Tonetti, Henry Fa'afili, Fetu'u Vainikolo; Miah Nikora, Frank Murphy; Brett Wilkinson, Ethienne Reynecke, Ronan Loughney, Michael Swift, Mike McCarthy, John Muldoon, Ray Ofisa, George Naoupu.

Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Denis Buckley, Rodney Ah You, Michael Kearney, Johnny O'Connor, Paul O'Donohoe, Matthew Jarvis, Eoin Griffin.

Connacht elite player development officer Jimmy Duffy chats about the province's latest programme, 'Grassroots to Green Shirts', which they hope will increase the number of indigenous players coming through the provincial player pathway. In the westerners' current senior squad, there are 19 players who have come through the Connacht system.

Speaking about Connacht's 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' initiative, the province's CEO Tom Sears said: "We like to think we're innovative in our approach, that we're looking at things slightly differently. We've shown that the production line is working with the young players coming through. The system is working, we just need a bit more investment to make sure we can get more players through."

Connacht's head of commercial and marketing Alex Saul talks about some exciting developments off the pitch for the province, including their 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' crowd-funding initiative which gives fans the chance to play their part in growing and developing the future stars of Connacht and Irish rugby.

Speaking after the 30-11 home win over the Dragons, Connacht head coach Eric Elwood said: "We're a little bit disappointed we didn't get the bonus point, but the good thing is we got a good victory at home and we had a great crowd. We're back on the horse and it sets us up for Harlequins (next week)."

Speaking about recovering from the disappointing defeat to the Scarlets, young Leinster centre Noel Reid said: "We went over looking for a result and we didn't perform the way we wanted to. So we need a big week now of training and focusing on the things that didn't go our way - the breakdown in particular."

Speaking after Leinster's 31-30 RaboDirect PRO12 final defeat to the Ospreys, head coach Joe Schmidt said: "They scored a try in each of those instances (when we had a player yellow carded). It obviously has an impact, particularly in the last ten minutes when we felt that we would have a bit of fatigue."