{"id":368900,"date":"2025-12-24T13:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368900\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T13:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:23:08","slug":"united-rugby-championship-ulster-make-six-changes-for-connacht-urc-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368900\/","title":{"rendered":"United Rugby Championship: Ulster make six changes for Connacht URC game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cormac Izuchuku is included in the Ulster starting line-up for the first time since October as the Irish province make six changes to the starting XV which took to the field for the 24-20 defeat<\/a> by Leinster for Saturday’s interprovincial against Connacht in Galway (17:30 GMT).<\/p>\n

The second row has overcome injury and illness and this week committed his future to Ulster by agreeing a two-year contract extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Izuchukwu replaces Charlie Irvine in the second row for the Dexcom Stadium encounter and will partner Harry Sheridan, who will make his 50th appearance for the province.<\/p>\n

Sam Crean and Scott Wilson come in at loose-head and tight-head prop respectively, with Tom Stewart retaining his position at hooker.<\/p>\n

In the half-backs, scrum-half Conor McKee makes his first interprovincial start alongside fly-half Jack Murphy.<\/p>\n

The two changes in the back division see Zac Ward start on the left flank and James Hume return to join Stuart McCloskey in forming the centre partnership.<\/p>\n

In-form wing Werner Kok starts on the right wing after scoring two tries against Leinster, as Jacob Stockdale is retained at full-back.<\/p>\n

David McCann, Nick Timoney and Juarno Augustus make up the back row.<\/p>\n

The back-line replacements are Nathan Doak, Jake Flannery and Jude Postlethwaite, while the forward options on the bench are John Andrew, Angus Bell, Tom O’Toole, Joe Hopes and Bryn Ward.<\/p>\n

Ulster go into the Christmas period in fifth position in the table after winning four and losing two of their URC matches to date.<\/p>\n

Richie Murphy’s side will complete a trio of Irish interprovincials when they host Munster in Belfast on 2 January.<\/p>\n

Connacht: Gilbert; Ryan, Forde, Aki, Treacy; Carty, B Murphy; Buckley, Heffernan, Bealham; Joyce, O’Connor; J Murphy, Prendergast, Jansen.<\/p>\n

Replacements: Tierney-Martin, Duggan, Barrett, Murray, O’Brien, Devine, Ioane, Gavin.<\/p>\n

Ulster: Stockdale; Kok, Hume, McCloskey, Z Ward; Crean, Stewart, Wilson; Sheridan, Izuchukwu; McCann, Timoney, Augustus.<\/p>\n

Replacements: Andrew, Bell, O’Toole, Hopes, B Ward, Doak, Flannery, Postlethwaite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cormac Izuchuku is included in the Ulster starting line-up for the first time since October as the Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-368900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}