Connacht v Edinburgh: Teams

Connacht will be without seven players for the Magners League clash against Edinburgh on Friday.

George Naoupu, Ray Ofisa, Liam Bibo and Keith Mathews have all been ruled out the match, while John Muldoon, Robbie Morris and Niva Ta'auso have failed late fitness tests.

Ronan Loughney, though, has been named on the bench after he was passed fit.

Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat welcomes back three internationals to his line-up.

Allan Jacobsen, Jim Hamilton and David Callam all return for the match, with talented centre Ben Cairns recovering from injury to start in the centres.

And Moffat was warned his players they will have to rise to the challenge in Galway.

He said: "It is a tough game for us and we need to keep moving forward. We know that we didn't play particularly well last week and that we must improve against Connacht.

"With four games left, we know that we control whether or not we will qualify for the play-offs.

"We are in a good position, but the really hard work starts now. Everybody knows that we must keep performing to a high standard and winning matches."

Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy (capt), 14 Brian Tuohy, 13 Troy Nathan, 12 Aidan Wynne, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 Mike McComish, 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 Mike McCarthy, 5 Bernie Upton, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Jamie Hagan, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Adrian Flavin, 17 Ronan Loughney, 18 Dave Nolan, 19 Andrew Browne, 20 Conor O'Loughlin, 21 Miah Nikora, 22 Eoin Griffin.

Edinburgh: 15 Jim Thompson, 14 Mark Robertson, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Ben Cairns, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair (capt), 8 Roddy Grant, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Alan MacDonald, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Andrew Kelly, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Steve Turnbull, 19 Scott Newlands, 20 Greig Laidlaw, 21 David Blair, 22 John Houston.