By Sea_Point
March 23 2006

Connacht & Border Reivers have announced their teams for Friday niughts fixture at Netherdale. Coaches Bradley & Bates both name players returning from injury in their starting fiteens, with top try scorer Conor McPhilips making a welcome return for the westerners.

Connacht Name Team
 
Michael Bradley has named his starting xv to face Border Reivers at Netherdale on Friday evening (7:30). The team shows four changes from the side that lost narrowly to Leinster earlier this month.

Pic: Conor McPhillips, Connacht's joint top try scorer with eight, returns from injury.

In the backline Conor McPhillips returns from injury to take his place on the wing while Andrew Mailei comes into the side at outside centre. They replace injured duo Keith Matthews and John Hearty.

David Slemen replaces Paul Warwick at out half while the injured Brendan O’Connor is replaced by Matt Lacey.

Connacht rugby.ie will bring you news from the Connacht camp on Friday morning, updates from the game on Friday and a full report on Friday night.

Border Reivers head coach Steve Bates has selected his team to take on Connacht in the first home game for the Reivers in nearly nine weeks.

Bates said: “We are really looking forward to this challenge on Friday having only played three games since our last home game in January against L’Aquila in the European Challenge Cup.

“Connacht are a very good side and have been well rested throughout the international period so they should be in top form coming into this game.”

The line-up sees Calcutta Cup players Scott MacLeod and the newly re-signed Bruce Douglas return to Reivers duty alongside seven other Reivers players who have been involved with the Scotland squad throughout their successful RBS 6 Nations campaign.

Simon Danielli and Semo Sititi also return to Netherdale after they turned out for the successful international invitation side, the Barbarians, last Friday at Welford Road when Danielli scored two spectacular solo efforts from the half-way line in the 52-42 win over Leicester Tigers.

Border Reivers team to play Connacht in the Celtic League at Netherdale on Friday 24 March (kick-off 7:30pm)

Connacht:	Borders:
15 Matt Mostyn	15 Stuart Moffat
14 Conor McPhillips	14 Simon Danielli
13 Andrew Mailei	13 Ben MacDougall
12 Mark McHugh	12 Calum MacRae *
11 Darren Yapp	11 Nikki Walker
10 David Slemen	10 Gregor Townsend
9 Chris Keane	9 Brendan McKerchar
1 Ray Hogan	1 Paul Thomson (CAPTAIN)
2 John Fogarty	2 Steve Scott
3 Adrian Clarke	3 Bruce Douglas
4 David Gannon	4 Scott MacLeod
5 Andrew Farley (CAPTAIN)	5 Opeta Palepoi
6 John Muldoon	6 Kelly Brown *
7 Matt Lacey	8 Semo Sititi
8 Colm Rigney.	7 Andy Miller
Replacements:	Substitutes:
16 Joe Merrigan	16 Will Kay
17 Stephen Knoop	17 Tom McGee
18 Christian Short	18 Geoff Cross
19 Michael Swift	19 John Dalziel
20 Conor O'Loughlin	20 Johnny Weston *
21 Paul Warwick	21 Scott Gray
22 Gavin Williams	22 James King
* = Indicates member of Scottish Institute of Sport