SATURDAY
POOL 2
London Irish v Edinburgh Rugby (1.30) Sky Sports (red button) Michael Bradley makes one change to the team which won away to Treviso last week, with Roddy Grant restored to the backrow in place of Stuart McInally, which means H Cup debuts for young outhalf Harry Leonard, centre Matt Scott and lock Grant Gilchrist.
Toby Booth, who has targeted home wins, has made three changes from the side which managed an unlikely comeback draw at Leicester last week. James Buckland is recalled to the frontrow, with Nick Kennedy and Matt Garvey in the secondrow as All Black, Bryn Evans, moves to the backrow. Liable to be loose and high scoring.
LONDON IRISH:T Homer; T Ojo, S Shingler, S Hape, A Thompstone; D Bowden, R Samson; A Corbisiero, J Buckland, P Ion, N Kennedy, M Garvey, B Evans, J Gibson, J Sinclair.
EDINBURGH RUGBY:J Thompson; L Jones, N De Luca, M Scott, T Visser; H Leonard, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, E Lozada, G Gilchrist, D Denton, R Rennie, R Grant.
POOL 4
Aironi Rugby v Leicester Tigers
(1.30 Irish) Sky Sports (red button)
The talented ex-Leinster outside back Niall Morris, Leicester’s leading try scorer this season, is recalled at the expense of Scott Hamilton alongside captain Geordan Murphy, with Andy Forsyth called up to a midfield badly missing Manu Tuilagi.
Leicester have been misfiring this season, although that shouldn’t matter against an Aironi side who recall Andrew Masi to their midfield as well as former Hurricanes scrumhalf Tyson Keats. Aironi languish at the foot of the Pro12 and this is the eighth season Leicester have been drawn with an Italian side, their average winning margin being 45-11 in those 14 wins.
AIRONI RUGBY:R Trevisan; S Sinoti, A Masi, M Pratichetti, G Venditti; L Orquera, T Keats; S Perugini, F Ongaro, F Staibano, Q Geldenhuys, M Bortolami, N Cattina, S Favaro, F Viljoen.
LEICESTER TIGERS:G Murphy; N Morris, M Smith, A Forsyth, A Tuilagi; T Flood, S Harrison; M Ayerza, G Chuter, D Cole, L Deacon, G Parling, T Croft, J Salvi, T Waldrom.
POOL 1
Scarlets v Castres Olympique (3pm)
In their 100th H Cup match, the Scarlets’ quartet of young Welsh World Cup backs, George North (his debut in the competition), Jon Davies, Tavis Knoyle and Scott Williams all start along with Scotland’s Sean Lamont, as does one-time Welsh captain Matthew Rees, who missed the World Cup.
A strong looking Castres team, including ex-All Blacks flanker Chris Masoe alongside Iosefa Tekori and Steve Malonga, will surely look to beat up the home pack, but if they don’t the French side may struggle.
SCARLETS:L Williams; G North, S Williams, J Davies, S Lamont; S Jones, T Knoyle; I Thomas, M Rees, R Thomas, D Day, D Welch, A Shingler, J Edwards, B Morgan.
CASTRES OLYMPIQUE:R Teulet; M Nicolas, P Bonnefond, R Cabannes, M Andreu; R Tales, T Lacrampe; A Peikrishvili, M Rallier, L Ducalcon, M Rolland, R Capo Ortega, C Masoe, S Malonga, I Tekori.
POOL 5
Ospreys v Biarritz Olympique
(3.40) Sky Sports (red button)
Bottom of the Top 14, Biarritz gratefully welcome back their quartet of World Cup finalists Imanol Harinordoquy, Dimitri Yavchvili, Fabien Barcella and Damien Traille as well as USA wing Taku Ngwenya and Pumas centre Marcelo Bosch.
The Ospreys, by contrast, are Pro 12 leaders, have won a dozen H Cup matches in a row at the Liberty and are also back to full-strength as they seek to avenge a bitter one-point quarter-final defeat in San Sebastian two years ago.
OSPREYS:R Fussell; T Bowe, A Bishop, A Beck, S Williams; D Biggar, K Fotualii; D Jones, H Bennett, A Jones, AW Jones, I Evans, G Stowers, J Tipuric, J Thomas.
BIARRITZ OLYMPIQUE: D Haylett-Petty; T Ngwenya, M Bosch, D Traille, I Balshaw; J Peyrelongue, D Yachvili; F Barcella, B August, S Marconnet, J Thion, E Lund, B Guyot, I Harinordoquy, R Lakafia.
SUNDAY
POOL 3
Glasgow Warriors v Bath Rugby (12.45) Live on Sky Sports 1.
Glasgow have seen off Gloucester and London Wasps at Firhill in the last two seasons and Sean Lineen restores eight players who were rested from last week’s win in Aironi, their fourth in succession.
Matt Banahan returns to Bath’s midfield, as does fullback Nick Abendanon, outhalf Tom Heathcote, prop David Flatman, hooker Ross Batty, ex-Ulster lock Ryan Caldwell and flanker Guy Mercer.
GLASGOW WARRIORS:S Hogg; T Seymour, R Dewey, G Morrison, C Shaw; D Weir, C Cusiter; R Grant, P MacArthur, M Cusack, R Gray, A Kellock, R Harley, J Barclay, R Wilson.
BATH:N Abendanon; O Woodburn, D Hipkiss, M Banahan, T Biggs; T Heathcote, M Claassens; D Flatman, R Batty, D Wilson, S Hooper, R Caldwell, F Louw, G Mercer, S Taylor.
POOL 5
Saracens v Benetton Treviso (3.0) Springbok captain John Smit is in line for his Saracens debut off the bench, with Mark McCall also restoring Rhys Gill, Matt Stevens, Hayden Smith, Andy Saull and James Short.
Jacques Burger is ruled out with a knee injury which sees ex-Munster backrower Justin Melck joins Smit amongst the replacements.
Improving Treviso have recalled Willem de Waal and Fabio Semenzato at halfback after their surprise defeat at home to Edinburgh last week, which ended a four-match winning run but this relentlessly physical and patterned Saracens are on a roll of seven successive wins.
SARACENS:C Wyles; D Strettle, O Farrell, B Barritt, J Short; C Hodgson, N de Kock; R Gill, S Brits, M Stevens, S Borthwick, H Smith, K Brown, A Saull, E Joubert.
TREVISO: L Nitoglia; B de Jager, T Benvenuti, A Sgarbi, B Williams; W de Waal, F Semenzato; M Rizzo, D Vidal, L Cittadini, A Pavanello, C van Zyl, B Vermaak , A Zanni, R Barbieri.
POOL 6
Toulouse v Gloucester
(3.0 Irish) Live on Sky Sports 1.
Although Guy Noves has again rested four of his five World Cup finalists Thierry Dusautoir, Maxime Medard, Vincent Clerc and William Servat (who joins Yannick Jauzion on the bench), Jean-Baptiste Poux starts at loosehead in a star-studded team featuring their new halfback combination of Luke Burgess and Luke McAlister.
With Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu suspended, Henry Trinder will partner Gloucester’s other headline-maker, Mike Tindall, who moves to inside centre, while captain Peter Buxton returns.
TOULOUSE:C Poitrenaud; T Matanavou, Y David , F Fritz, Y Donguy; L McAlister, L Burgess; J Poux, G Botha, C Johnston, Y Maestri, R Millo-Chluski, Y Nyanga [capt], S Nicolas, S Sowerby.
GLOUCESTER:O Morgan; C Sharples, H Trinder, M Tindall, T Voyce; F Burns, R Lawson; N Wood, D Dawiduik, R Harden, W James, J Hamilton, P Buxton, A Qera, A Strokosch.
