Champions Cup Round of 16: Leinster v Edinburgh, Aviva Stadium, Sunday, 5.30pm – Live on Premier Sports 1

Ryan Baird has been named in Leinster’s starting XV for their Champions Cup Round of 16 clash against Edinburgh this Sunday at the Aviva Stadium in his first game since suffering a fractured tibia in Ireland’s loss to South Africa last November.

In the continuing absence of James Ryan and with RG Snyman being ruled out for the rest of the season, Baird makes a timely return ahead of the business end of the season for Leinster. The 26-year-old make a string of man-of-the-match performances in Leinster’s surge to the URC title at the end of last season.

The other two changes to the starting XV from last week’s 36-19 win over the Scarlets see Rieko Ioane return at outside centre in place of Garry Ringrose, who is believed to have suffered a back injury in that game, while Jack Conan has been restored to the backrow.

Jimmy O’Brien is moved from fullback to the left wing in place of Joshua Kenny, who misses out altogether despite his two-try display against the Scarlets, while Brian Deeny and Max Deegan move to a much-changed bench.

In addition to Thomas Clarkson and Ciarán Frawley being reinstated among the replacements, Luke McGrath is also recalled to earn what will be his 250th Leinster cap, while the 20-year-old loosehead Alex Usanov is in line for his Champions Cup debut in what will be his fifth appearance for the province.

It’s been quite a fall from grace for Sam Prendergast considering he was the starting outhalf in Ireland’s opening two games in the Six Nations and now, like in the final three games of that tournament, he misses out on the matchday squad.

“Sam is such a quality player and he’s going to be an amazing player,” said Cullen. “You think of what he’s achieved so far as a very, very young man. This is one selection and we’ll see. It’s just making sure that we have a very competitive group. There’s other players that have also missed out this week that are serious players.

“Unfortunately, we can’t put everyone in there. But if we want to be successful in the two competitions, which is what we want, we need everyone to be making sure we’re fully engaged as the season goes on and delivers everything we possibly can for the team. So yeah, Harry wins this one and we’ll see you in the next few weeks go.”

Regarding Baird’s return, Cullen said: “Ryan has worked incredibly hard to get himself in good shape and he’s got himself in great shape. He did a matchday warm-up last week. He sat in the box with the coaches during the game and yeah, it’s big to step in straight back into a knock-out game, but he’s a big player for the team over the last number of years and hopefully hits the ground running this weekend.”

In their 18 games this season Leinster have conceded 18 yellow cards and Cullen accepted that if they are to lift silverware this season that ratio has to come down significantly.

“Yeah, absolutely, and we’ve tried to address that here ourselves as well. So yeah, there’s lots of different reasons at different times of the year as well, when we come under pressure and how we manage that. So definitely, yeah, our discipline needs to be better.”

LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O’Brien; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, Ryan Baird; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).

Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Alex Usanov, Thomas Clarkson, Brian Deeny, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ciarán Frawley, Robbie Henshaw.

EDINBURGH: Piers O’Conor; Darcy Graham, Matt Currie, James Lang, Malelili Satala; Ross Thompson, Charlie Shiel; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, D’arcy Rae; Marshall Sykes, Grant Gilchrist (capt); Liam McConnell, Dylan Richardson, Ben Muncaster.

Replacements: Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Boan Venter, Paul Hill, Glen Young, Freddy Douglas, Ben Vellacott, Mosese Tuipulotu, Jack Brown.

Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU).