{"id":101488,"date":"2025-10-24T12:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/101488\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:54:07","slug":"west-debuts-as-connacht-make-nine-changes-for-munster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/101488\/","title":{"rendered":"West debuts as Connacht make nine changes for Munster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connacht have made nine changes, including handing a debut to Harry West, to the side that lost to Bulls<\/a> to take on Munster in the BKT URC.<\/p>\n

The Ballina RFC man and academy graduate starts at full-back.<\/p>\n

Stuart Lancaster’s side are without Ireland players Finlay Bealham, Bundee Aki, Cian Prendergast, Shayne Bolton and Caolin Blade, while Mack Hansen was injured last weekend.<\/p>\n

West is included in a new-look back three with Finn Treacy on the left wing and Byron Ralston shifting from centre to the right wing.<\/p>\n

\"URC<\/p>\n

Galway natives Cathal Forde and Hugh Gavin are named as the new centre pairing, while Ben Murphy comes in at scrum-half to partner out-half Josh Ioane.<\/p>\n

In the pack there are starts for props Jordan Duggan and Sam Illo, while hooker Dave Heffernan is retained.<\/p>\n

In the second row, Joe Joyce comes in to partner Darragh Murray, while Paul Boyle returns from injury to captain the side at openside flanker, alongside Josh Murphy, who had his red card rescinded<\/a>, and number 8 Sean Jansen.<\/p>\n

The coaching team have gone for a 6:2 split on the bench, with academy prop Fiachna Barrett among the replacements and Sean O\u2019Brien wearing the number 23 jersey.<\/p>\n

Connacht: Harry West; Byron Ralston, Hugh Gavin, Cathal Forde, Finn Treacy; Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy; Jordan Duggan, Dave Heffernan, Sam Illo; Joe Joyce, Darragh Murray; Josh Murphy, Paul Boyle (capt), Sean Jansen.<\/p>\n

Replacements: Dylan Tierney-Martin, Peter Dooley, Fiachna Barrett, Niall Murray, David O\u2019Connor, Matthew Devine, Sean Naughton, Se\u00e1n O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy has named hooker Tom Stewart at flanker as part of a much changed side to face the Emirates Lions.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old moves to openside, as he did last Saturday, to accomodate for an injury crisis and the loss of Nick Timoney to Ireland camp.<\/p>\n

New signing Juarno Augustus is passed fit to start in the back row alongside Stewart and David McCann.<\/p>\n

Former Ireland under-20 stars Joe Hopes and Jude Postlethwaite come in to start at lock and centre respectively.<\/p>\n

There are also recalls for wingers Zac Ward and Rob Baloucoune and the experienced duo of Rob Herring and Tom O’Toole in the front row.<\/p>\n

Bryn Ward, younger brother of Zac, is set for his Ulster debut from the bench should he come on.<\/p>\n

Ulster: Michael Lowry; Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Jude Postlethwaite, Zac Ward; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Sam Crean, Rob Herring (capt), Tom O’Toole; Harry Sheridan, Joe Hopes; David McCann, Tom Stewart, Juarno Augustus.<\/p>\n

Replacements: James McCormick, Callum Reid, Scott Wilson, Matthew Dalton, Bryn Ward, Conor McKee, Jake Flannery, Werner Kok.<\/p>\n

Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow a live blog on Munster v Connacht in the URC on Saturday from 7.45pm on the RT\u00c9 News App and on rte.ie\/sport. Listen to live commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 Extra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connacht have made nine changes, including handing a debut to Harry West, to the side that lost to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-101488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}