Connacht aim to ambush Leinster at Aviva - westerners pick a first-choice side hoping to catch 'second string' Blues out

Leinster boss Leo Cullen was able to throw a weather-eye over Connacht's selection for the URC tussle at the Aviva this evening and came to the conclusion he expected.

Connacht have put every single thing they possess into landing a pre-Christmas scalp - western team selection has been dialled up the Gale Force XV.

Ireland stars Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham return to start, as do impressive imports Josh Ioane, Piers O'Connor, Shamus Hurley-Langton as well as the in-form Cathal Forde, Cian Prendergast and Josh Murphy.

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Notes Cullen: "I get the sense they have been using the Challenge Cup games to gear up for this game, rather than the other way around.

"So a good challenge and and that's what we want, and you can see how competitive it is, this league. That's what we're expecting so we try to pick a strong group as well."

This comes as Leinster makes 13 personnel changes with the two players retained, Jordie Barrett and Jimmy O'Brien, switching positions from full-back and wing to first-centre and full-back respectively.

Essentially the Blues have dropped out 10 front-line internationals not just from the team but out of their match-day squad entirely.

"There are certain constraints this time of year, but again, it is not a new phenomenon. We've had to deliver something similar over the last number of years.

"Every team has a different sort of set of circumstances to navigate so for us this time of year in terms of having so many younger players involved we tried to pick a very experienced group, as in have a bunch of experienced players around them.

"We have put Rabah (Slimani) in the front-row and RG (Snyman) in the second-row and there is experience they have and then you talk about what's there in the nos8/9/10/12 axis and go to no15 and you can talk of Jimmy O'Brien as well, there is a lot of experience that he has.

"These are sort of mixed in with some Academy guys in there, Diamuid Mangan, Gus McCarthy is as an academy player albeit an Ireland international Academy player. Two wingers, Andrew (Osborne) and Aitzol (Arenzana-King) and Charlie Tector in the midfield, so it's an exciting mix from our point of view.

"Hopefully the supporters will get behind this group and we can have a good day and deal with any of their onfield threats because they're going to come here with a point to prove."

Leinster: Jimmy O’Brien; Aitzol Arenzana-King, Charlie Tector, Jordie Barrett, Andrew Osborne, Ross Byrne, Luke McGrath; Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani, Diarmuid Mangan, RG Snyman, Alex Soroka, Scott Penny, Jack Conan (capt).

Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Cian Healy, Brian Deeny, Ryan Baird, Jamison Gibson-Park, Harry Byrne, Max Deegan.

Connacht: Piers O’Conor; Mack Hansen, Cathal Forde, Bundee Aki, Shane Jennings; Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy; Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham, Josh Murphy, Darragh Murray, Cian Prendergast (capt), Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle.

Replacements: Dylan Tierney-Martin, Jordan Duggan, Jack Aungier, Oisín Dowling, Sean Jansen, Caolin Blade, Santiago Cordero, Conor Oliver.

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