Cullen And Jennings Return To Leinster Pack

The Leinster team to face the Scarlets in the latest round of RaboDirect PRO12 action at the RDS on Saturday (kick-off 7.45pm) has been named.

Leo Cullen leads an inexperienced team for the province's fourth meeting of the season with Simon Easterby's Scarlets side.

Cullen, who was a second half replacement in the bonus point victory over Benetton Treviso last weekend, partners Ben Marshall in the second row.

Ireland international Shane Jennings is back in the starting line-up after missing the Treviso match and features in the back row alongside Jordi Murphy and Dominic Ryan, who scored a hat-trick of tries against the Italian outfit.

In the back-line, Isaac Boss links up at half-back with Noel Reid, who is one of three current Academy players in the starting line-up.

Andrew Goodman continues in the centre alongside Eoin O'Malley, while Fionn Carr, who makes his 35th appearance for his home province, joins Andrew Conway and David Kearney in the back-three.

Ian Madigan and Fergus McFadden are named amongst the replacements after their release from Ireland camp after training on Friday.

There are now over 15,300 tickets sold for Saturday's game and tickets will be available at the ground on the night.

Tickets are also on sale online here and can be purchased from the Leinster Rugby Store (Donnybrook), Spar (Donnybrook) and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

LEINSTER (v Scarlets): David Kearney; Andrew Conway, Eoin O'Malley, Andrew Goodman, Fionn Carr; Noel Reid, Isaac Boss; Jack McGrath, Aaron Dundon, Michael Bent, Leo Cullen (capt), Ben Marshall, Dominic Ryan, Shane Jennings, Jordi Murphy.

Replacements: Tom Sexton, Jack O'Connell, Jamie Hagan, Mark Flanagan, Rhys Ruddock, John Cooney, Ian Madigan, Fergus McFadden.

Previewing Saturday's RaboDirect PRO12 final against Leinster with Cóilín Duffy, Ulster winger Andrew Trimble said: "We really motivated for this game. People are talking about us being the best Ulster side in a few years, we had that record of 13 wins in a row at the start of the year. We want to win trophies, and there's no point having those records unless we back them up."

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."