Bradley names Connacht side

by Mark Doyle , 16 March 2010

Connacht boss Michael Bradley has made five changes to his starting line-up for Wednesday's crucial clash with the Newport Gwent Dragons in Galway.


One of the changes is enforced, with Adrian Flavin coming into the side at hooker to fill the void left by Sean Cronin, who is on international duty with Ireland ahead of Saturday's meeting with Scotland at Croke Park.

The only other change to the pack which faced Glasgow last time out sees Ray Ofisa take over from Johnny O'Connor at openside flanker.

In the back-line, meanwhile, Niva Ta'auso earns a recall in midfield at the expense of Aidan Wynne, who drops to the bench. Liam Bibo is preferred to Troy Nathan on the wing while Conor O'Loughlin gets the nod at scrum-half ahead of Frank Murphy.

Assessing the task the lies ahead of Connacht, head coach Michael Bradley said of the Dragons: "They had an excellent performance against Munster. I think it's probably the best result they've had in a couple of years in the Magners League.

"It sets them up nicely in terms of an opportunity to secure one of the Welsh positions in the Heineken Cup, and they'll be coming here with an awful lot of confidence.

"Having said that, this fixture has gone to the home side predominantly in the last three or four years.

"Obviously, with our performance against the Ospreys three weeks ago and the most recent one against Glasgow being disappointing in terms of not getting a win, this has become a huge game for us and we'll be treating it like so."

Connacht:
G Duffy; L Bibo, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, C O'Loughlin; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagan; M Swift, M McCarthy; J Muldoon (capt), R Ofisa, G Naoupu.
Replacements: R Loughney, R Morris, B Upton, M McComish, K Campbell, M Nikora, A Wynne.

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