Robert Baloucoune has been passed fit for Ulster’s Challenge Cup final against Montpellier on Friday night.<\/p>\n
The Ireland winger has not played since the Six Nations clash with Scotland in mid-March when he suffered an arm injury.<\/p>\n
However, head coach Richie Murphy, who is without the injured Jacob Stockdale, Stuart McCloskey, Rob Herring and the suspended Iain Henderson, is able to call on the 28-year-old to bolster the attack.<\/p>\n
There are four changes to the side that beat Exeter in the semi-finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ireland international flanker Nick Timoney captains the team for the 8pm Irish time kick-off in the Basque Country.<\/p>\n In the front row, Wallaby Angus Bell starts at loosehead prop, with Irish internationals Tom Stewart and Tom O’Toole starting at hooker and tighthead prop.<\/p>\n In the second row, Harry Sheridan and Irish forward Cormac Izuchukwu start.<\/p>\n David McCann is passed fit following a recent knee injury to start at blindside flanker. Timoney starts at openside flanker, while in-form South African Juarno Augustus is named at 8.<\/p>\n Scrum-Half Nathan Doak starts alongside Jack Murphy at out-half.<\/p>\n In the midfield, Jude Postlethwaite joins James Hume in the centre.<\/p>\n Top try-scorer Zac Ward is on the left wing, with Baloucoune starting on the right wing. Michael Lowry retains his place at full-back.<\/p>\n Murphy has opted for a 5:3 bench split, with James McCormick, Eric O\u2019Sullivan, Scott Wilson, Charlie Irvine and Bryn Ward the forward replacements.<\/p>\n Conor McKee, Jake Flannery and Ethan McIlroy form the backline options for the final.<\/p>\n Former Saracens and England number 8 Billy Vunipola captains the Top 14 side.<\/p>\n Ulster: Mike Lowry; Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Jude Postlethwaite, Zac Ward; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Angus Bell, Tom Stewart, Tom O’Toole; Harry Sheridan, Cormac Izuchukwu; Dave McCann, Nick Timoney (capt), Juarno Augustus.<\/p>\n Replacements: James McCormick, Eric O’Sullivan, Scott Wilson, Charlie Irvine, Bryn Ward, Conor McKee, Jake Flannery, Ethan McIlroy.<\/p>\n Montpellier: Tom Banks; Gabriel N’Gandebe, Arthur Vincent, Auguste Cadot, Donovan Taofifenua; Domingo Miotti, Ali Price; Enzo Forletta, Jordan Uelese, Mohamed Haouas; Florian Verhaeghe, Tyler Duguid; Lenni Nouchi, Alex Becognee, Billy Vunipola (capt).<\/p>\n Replacements: Lyam Akrab, Baptiste Erdocio, Wilfrid Hounkpatin, Adam Beard, Marco Tauleigne, Leo Coly, Thomas Darmon, Jon Echegaray.<\/p>\n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n \n Follow a live blog of Ulster v Montpellier in the Challenge Cup final (Friday, 8pm) and Leinster v Bordeaux-Begles in the Champions Cup final (Saturday, 2.45pm) on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app.<\/p>\n Listen to live commentary of the Champions Cup final on Saturday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Baloucoune has been passed fit for Ulster’s Challenge Cup final against Montpellier on Friday night. The Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-460175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460175","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=460175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}