COACH BRIAN McLaughlin has made just one change to the Ulster side that beat Cardiff 20-3 last weekend. Luke Marshall has been called in to the centre to replace the injured Darren Cave, who has hurt his hamstring again. Cave’s injury is a frustrating recurrence of the problem that plagued him for most of last season.

Ian Humphreys has recovered from his shoulder injury and takes his place at outhalf with Chris Henry leading the side in the backrow.

Ulster arrive at Liberty Stadium hoping to break a decent Ospreys record. They have been beaten just once in their last 14 games in all competitions, while Ulster have won just twice in seven previous visits to Swansea. Both sides go into the game unbeaten and are locked on 12 points, just one behind leaders Munster.

“They have won all their games so far this season too so it will be another tough game for us,” said McLaughlin. “If we play as well as we have been I see no reason why we can’t get another win and that would put us in a really strong position. We lost by a point to them last season so there’s no doubt it will be another big challenge for us.”

Jared Payne at fullback has been a good signing for Ulster but they know Ospreys represent one of the toughest away fixtures of the season.

Next to Munster and Leinster there are no harder teams to play at home.

“We saw from their performance against the Blues last week that they play good rugby and have a cutting edge, so we know that it’s going to be a difficult afternoon,” said director of coaching Scott Johnson.

“For our part, we need to lift our all-round performance up a couple of notches from where we were last weekend against Treviso. Yes, we got another win to make it three from three but we rode our luck at times, particularly in the first half.”

OSPREYS: B Davies; R Fussell, T Isaacs, A Bishop, H Dirksoen; D Biggar, R Webb; D Jones, S Baldwin, A Jarvis, I Gough, J Goode, T Smith, J Tipuric (capt), J Thomas. Replacements: R Hibbard, C Griffiths, J Rees, J King, J Beaman, M Morgan, S Parker, K Phillips.

ULSTER: J Payne; C Gilroy, N Spence, L Marshall, I Whitten; I Humphreys, P Marshall; D Fitzpatrick, A Kyriacou, J Cronin, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack. Replacements: N Brady, P McAllister, A Macklin, T Barker, W Faloon, B McIlroy, P Jackson, A D’Arcy.

Referee: D Phillips (IRFU).

Verdict: Ospreys win.

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