Connacht coach Eric Elwood has named his starting line-up to play Glasgow Warriors in Friday’s Magners League tie at Firhill Stadium (kick-off 7.30pm).
The selected matchday squad sees just one change from last weekend’s narrow loss to the Scarlets in Llanelli. Andrew Browne makes his return from injury on the replacements bench, taking over from Dave Nolan.
Ray Ofisa (neck), Niva Ta’auso (hand) and Bernie Upton (head) all passed fitness tests and travelled with the squad to Glasgow on Thursday morning.
Troy Nathan (shoulder), Jamie Hagan (hamstring) and Miah Nikora (dead leg) have also shaken off their respective knocks.
Scrum half Frank Murphy continues to deputise as team captain, in place of the injured John Muldoon.
Connacht coach Eric Elwood said: “We are aiming to pick our strongest team. We feel there are points to be got from the Glasgow game, and if we have to taper our sessions to field the best team, we will.
“It’s important for us. In certain positions we don’t have options, so it is important to give the guys a rest to enable them to play.
“Glasgow is always a tough place historically. They are battlers, a very physical team with a good set of forwards that compete at the breakdown.
“They work hard in defence and are very committed, so we will not get anything easy,” he added.
Connacht head into the game in third place in the Magners League table, with Ian Keatley the competition’s top points scorer (43 points) and Fionn Carr the joint top try scorer (3 tries).
CONNACHT (v Glasgow Warriors): Gavin Duffy; Troy Nathan, Niva Ta’auso, Keith Matthews, Fionn Carr; Ian Keatley, Frank Murphy (capt); Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin, Jamie Hagan, Michael Swift, Bernie Upton, Michael McCarthy, Ray Ofisa, Mike McComish.
Replacments: Adrian Flavin, Ronan Loughney, Rob Sweeney, Andrew Browne, Shane Conneely, Cillian Willis, Miah Nikora, Tiernan O’Halloran.
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