Heineken Cup Pool Four
Venue: Stade Jean Bouin Date: Sun, 20 December KO: 1400 GMT
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio Ulster medium wave and the BBC Sport website.

Paddy Wallace returns to skipper Ulster against Stade in Brussels

Ulster make four changes for Sunday's crucial Heineken Cup Pool Four game against Stade Francais in Paris.

Skipper Paddy Wallace, winger Timoci Nagusa and prop BJ Botha return from injury while Willie Faloon is preferred to David Pollock at open-side.

Andrew Trimble moves inside to partner Wallace in the midfield with Nagusa back on the right wing.

The game was switched to Stade's home venue on Sunday after the planned match on Saturday in Brussels was postponed.

The fixture was called off because of a frozen pitch.

Ian Whitten, Declan Fitzpatrick, David Pollock, Darren Cave and Cillian Willis are named on the replacements.

Julien Dupuy, banned for 24 weeks, and David Attoub - suspended pending a further disciplinary hearing in January - are ruled out for Stade Francais after the eye-gouging incidents that marred last week's tempestuous reverse fixture.

Noel Oelschig starts at scrum-half and Geoffrey Messina comes into the centre, while hooker Dimitri Szarzewski, England lock Tom Palmer, flanker Mauro Bergamasco and number eight Juan Leguizamon come into the pack, with England flanker James Haskell on the bench.

Both Ulster and Stade Francais sit on nine points at the top of the Pool 4 table and the return of Wallace and Botha will act as a boost as Ulster attempt to win back-to-back games against the Parisians for the first time.

Botha will steady a creaking scrum while Wallace adds a bit of nous and flair in the midfield.

We know what to expect and hopefully we'll take every opportunity we are given Brian McLaughlin

"We've got to match whatever Stade throw at us," said Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin. "If we don't do that, if we don't compete, we know they will try and intimidate us off the park, but we wouldn't let that happen. To us it's just another away match.

"We know what to expect and hopefully we'll take every opportunity we are given.

"At the moment we're looking quite good from a player point of view. Now it's a matter of us making sure we have an attitude that's going to enable us to go across there and perform.

"We have trained well this week and are happy with where we are. We are ready to walk onto the field in Brussels. The team we've named is one that's covering every eventuality.

"We are happy to be going there and having the opportunity to still be in a position to qualify from our pool."

Stade Francais: H Southwell; J Arias, M Bastareaud, G Bousses, M Gasnier; L Beauxis, N Oelschig; R Roncero (capt), D Szarzewski, S Marconnet; T Palmer, P Pape; M Bergamasco, P Rabadan, J Leguizamon.
Replacements: B Kayser, R Slimani, P Ledesma, A Marchois, J Haskell, M Bergamasco, G Messina, O Phillips.

Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, A Trimble, P Wallace, capt, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, BJ Botha, D Tuohy, E O'Donoghue, S Ferris, W Faloon, C Henry.
Replacements: A Kyriacou, B Young, D Fitzpatrick, R Caldwell, D Pollock, C Willis, D Cave, I Whitten.

Referee: Chris White (England)

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