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.

Six Changes For Connacht

Connacht head coach Eric Elwood has made six changes to his starting team for the visit of the Scarlets to the Sportsground on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 3pm).

Injury has forced an entire new back row and sees Andrew Browne named as blindside flanker. This is Browne's first game back since he was injured during the 2011/12 pre-season.

Willie Faloon and Eoin McKeon complete the all-new back row, replacing Johnny O'Connor and George Naoupu respectively.

Brett Wilkinson will start in the loosehead prop position, while new signing Nathan White gets his first start for the westerners at tighthead prop.

Elsewhere, in the back-line, the fit-again David McSharry has been drafted in to reform his centre partnership with Eoin Griffin - he replaces Mata Fifita.

The Scarlets are riding high after two successive wins and are perched proudly at the top of the league table.

Connacht boss Elwood was very pleased with his team's performance in Parma last weekend and the 30-17 win over Zebre, but he knows there is a lot of work to do if they are to overcome the Welsh region.

"We played well against Zebre, scoring three tries away from home and securing our first win of the season," he said.

"The lads showed huge character in Italy, especially when we were forced into making so many changes in the second half. Tomorrow poses another challenge as the Scarlets are top of the league and are playing very well.

"They've had a great start to the season, scoring 10 tries in the process. We will really have to step it up against this Scarlets side but the lads are well up for the challenge."

CONNACHT (v Scarlets): Gavin Duffy (capt); Tiernan O'Halloran, Eoin Griffin, David McSharry, Fetu'u Vainikolo; Miah Nikora, Kieran Marmion; Brett Wilkinson, Ethienne Reynecke, Nathan White, Michael Swift, Mike McCarthy, Andrew Browne, Willie Faloon, Eoin McKeon.

Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Denis Buckley, Rodney Ah You, David Gannon, Johnny O'Connor, David Moore, Matthew Jarvis, Robbie Henshaw.

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."