CELTIC LEAGUE Live on BBC 2 Wales & 2W digital

Ulster coach Mark McCall has named an unchanged line-up for Friday's crunch Celtic League game at Ravenhill.

David Humphreys failed to recover from a hamstring injury and Paddy Wallace again deputises for Ulster who need to avoid defeat to book Celtic Cup place.

Injuries in the Scarlets camp means the Welsh side have included seven permit players in their 22-man squad.

Wing Steve Thomas gets his first start, while Ricky Davies and Ifan Evans could make their debuts off the bench.

A bonus-point win for the Scarlets would guarantee them a home draw in the end-of-season Celtic Cup, and coach Gareth Jenkins has called for a "clinical" performance from his side.

"Unfortunately, we took a number of knocks at the weekend and as a result we'll have to grind out a performance against Ulster in difficult conditions with a below par team," he said.

LAST LEAGUE MEETING 28 November: Scarlets 22-9 Ulster

"But we've put ourselves in this position and we must put in the performance to get ourselves out.

Ulster must avoid defeat to be sure of qualifying to defend the Celtic Cup they won last season.

Captain Andy Ward has admitted that "a lot of memories will come flooding back" when he leads out his side for possibly the last time at the Belfast ground.

"First and foremost I will be going on to the pitch with winning in mind. Maybe if there is a break in play I may stand back and soak up the atmosphere.

"If we manage to reach a semi-final of the Celtic Cup I may get the chance to play there again," said Ward who will be making his 118th appearance for the province.

A Scarlets win would also do a favour to the Blues, who face Borders at the Arms Park at the same time as the Ulster game.

The Cardiff side need to win to have a chance of a Celtic Cup spot or a Heineken Cup play-off place with the third-best Italian team.

But they also need either Ulster to lose to the Scarlets and/or Connacht to lose at the Dragons on Saturday.

Ulster: B Cunningham, T Bowe, K Maggs, P Steinmetz, S Young, P Wallace, K Campbell, S Best, P Shields, R Moore, G Longwell, M McCullough, A Ward, G Pfister, R Wilson. Replacements: N Doak, A Larkin, A Maxwell, R Best, R McCormack, R Frost, C Feather.

Scarlets: B Davies; G Evans, T Selley, S Thomas, L Byrne; G Bowen, M Phillips; P John, M Rees, J Davies, V Cooper, A Jones, S Easterby (cap) A Powell, J Mills.
Replacements: R Davies, A Gravelle, C Wyatt, I Boobyer, D Peel, A Thomas, I Evans.

Referee: Andrew Ireland (SRU).