Rugby:Ian Humphreys will make his first start of the season for Ulster in tomorrow night's Heinken Cup curtain-raiser at Ravenhill. The outhalf is named in the starting line-up in place of the injured Niall O'Connor.
Humphreys has been out of favour so far this season, and coach Brian McLaughlin had toyed with the idea of using either Paddy Wallace or Ruan Pienaar at number 10. Instead, Humphreys has been restored to the side as the province seek to get their European campaign off to a winning start.
While Pienaar will start at scrumhalf and Pedrie Wannenburg is named in the back row, the match will come too soon for fellow Springbok BJ Botha. The prop suffered a wrist injury against Connacht a fortnight ago and suffered a setback during the week.
Dan Tuohy loses his place in the second row with Tim Barker coming into the side.
Ulster eked out a hard-fought 22-15 win over Italians in the Magners League earlier this season McLaughlin expects another tough physical battle this time around.
"Aironi present a different Italian challenge than clubs from there previously in Europe,” McLaughlin said. “They are a provincial side and include a wealth of internationals in almost every position.
"We are defending a home record in Europe and want that to continue. We know we have not performed as we would have liked to in recent matches, but the key is we kept on winning and that is a major plus going into this game."
Meanwhile, Leinster have delayed naming their starting XV for Saturday’s home clash against Racing Metro until Friday morning as they await fitness tests on outhalf Jonathan Sexton and secondrow Leo Cullen.
Ian Madigan and Argentinean lock Mariano Galarza have been named in a 25-man squad as cover.
J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; B Young, R Best, T Court; J Muller, T Barker; P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack. Replacements:N Brady, P McAllister, A Whitten, D Tuohy, W Faloon, P Marshall, I Whitten, D McIlwaine.
Ulster:
Aironi:D Demas: G Toniolatti, R Penney, G Pavan, G Venditti: L Mercier, T Tebaldi: A de Marchi, R Santamaria, L Redolfini; C del Fava, M Bortolami: A Benatti, A Birchall, N Williams. Replacements:L Ferraro, A de Marchi, S Perugini, V Liebenberg, N Cattina, P Canavosio, G Pizarro, R Bocchino
Referee:Chris White (England)