Ulster scrum-half Nathan Doak has been passed fit to start against La Rochelle in Friday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final. <\/p>\n
Doak injured his ankle in the round of 16 win over Ospreys but has recovered to start in Belfast alongside the returning Jack Murphy.<\/p>\n
However, hooker Rob Herring is not in the matchday squad after he picked up a calf injury.<\/p>\n
Tom Stewart will start in place of Herring, and he is joined in the front row by Australia prop Angus Bell and Tom O’Toole.<\/p>\n
Cormac Izuchukwu will make his 50th Ulster appearance in the second row with captain Iain Henderson, while David McCann, Nick Timoney and Juarno Augustus make up an unchanged back row.<\/p>\n
Stuart McCloskey and James Hume retain their places at centre, while Zac Ward comes in on the wing as Jacob Stockdale shifts to full-back and Werner Kok completes the back three.<\/p>\n
Harry Sheridan has returned from suspension to take his place on the bench while centre Jude Postlethwaite is also named after he sustained a hand injury against Edinburgh in March.<\/p>\n
Ronan O’Gara has made three changes to his La Rochelle side, who beat Newcastle Red Bulls 26-18 in the last-16.<\/p>\n
Kirill Fraindt comes in at flanker and Lucas Andjisseramatchi shifts to number eight, while Watisoni Waqanisaravi drops out of the matchday 23.<\/p>\n
In the second row, Aleksandre Kuntelia replaces Simon Huchet and Ugo Pacome comes in on the right wing for Jules Favre.<\/p>\n
La Rochelle are without some key players including captain Gregory Alldritt, Nolann Le Garrec, Antoine Hastoy, Jack Nowell, Australia second row Will Skelton, back row Levani Botia and full-back Davit Niniashvili.<\/p>\n
Ulster: Jacob Stockdale; Werner Kok; James Hume, Stuart McCloskey; Zac Ward; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Angus Bell, Tom Stewart, Tom O’Toole; Iain Henderson, Cormac Izuchukwu; David McCann, Nick Timoney, Juarno Augustus.<\/p>\n
Replacements: James McCormick, Sam Crean, Scott Wilson, Harry Sheridan, Bryn Ward, Conor McKee, Jake Flannery, Jude Postlethwaite.<\/p>\n
La Rochelle: Ihaia West; Ugo Pacome; Ulupano Seuteni, Adrien Seguret; Hoani Bosmorin; Diego Jurd, Thomas Berjon (capt); Louis Penverne, Gabin Garault, Karl Sorin; Thomas Lavault, Aleksandre Kuntelia; Edouard Richer, Kirill Fraindt, Lucas Andjissermatchi. <\/p>\n
Replacements: Tolu Latu, Christian Luaki, Joel Sclavi, Alexandre Kaddouri, Nikolozi Sutidze, Judicael Cancoriet, Sacha Elissalde, Nolhann Couillaud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulster scrum-half Nathan Doak has been passed fit to start against La Rochelle in Friday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-595662","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\/595662","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=595662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}