Connacht play in their first every knockout game in the Champions Cup this week when they host Leinster at the Sportsground in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie. They may have played a couple of weeks ago but this time around the stars will be out for both sides so the game should be much better. Here's how to watch Connacht vs Leinster and a match preview ahead of the Champions Cup tie.
When is Connacht vs Leinster
Connacht host Leinster at the Galway Sportsground on Friday 8th April and kick off is at 8pm.
How to watch Connacht vs Leinster
The match will be live on BT Sports 1. Their coverage begins from 7:15pm.
Match Preview
As you may know, these two sides faced just two weeks ago in the Sportsground. Neither side had many of their Irish Internationals and after an early red card for Tom Daly, Leinster went on to win 45-8 after a dominant second half.
Connacht were actually leading at half-time despite being one man light but Leinster were able to take advantage of the extra man in the second half and the final 20 minutes were very poor from Connacht as Leinster began to run up the score.
Bundee Aki returns for Connacht for the first time since the Six Nations to start at inside centre while Gavin Thornbury also returns to make his first start of the season after missing 11 months with injury. The last change from last weeks win at Benetton is the return of captain Jarrad Butler who starts at 8.
🟢 𝙏𝙀𝘼𝙈 𝘼𝙉𝙉𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘾𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏 🟢
Meet the Connacht 23 for tomorrow's 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 @ChampionsCup meeting with @leinsterrugby! 👊#CONvLEI | #HeinekenChampionsCup
Full story: https://t.co/H4uBS8hVEJ pic.twitter.com/eYg7w1oGOH— Connacht Rugby (@connachtrugby) April 7, 2022
Leinster began the week on a positive note as Andrew Porter, Jordan Larmour, Michael Milne and Rónan Kelleher all stepped up their recovery programmes having missed the last while with injuries.
However on Tuesday it was announced that flanker Dan Leavy is retiring with immediate effect after medical advice. The flanker will go down as a legend at Leinster despite his short time in the blue jersey and it will be interesting to see how a loss of a player like Leavy will effect Leinster.
ICYMI 👇
Here's the #LeinsterRugby team, announced earlier today, to take on Connacht in tomorrow's first leg of the #HeinekenChampionsCup Round of 16. 👊#CONvLEI #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/rwbN69fbOR— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) April 7, 2022
Johnny Sexton returns to the starting lineup as he captains the side out in Galway. Cian Healy, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong also return to start in the front row while Ross Molony and Josh Murphy start in second row with Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan rounding out the pack.
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