Adam Larkin will partner Shane Stewart in midfield

Adam Larkin has been given a starting place in the Ulster line-up for Friday's crunch Celtic League game against Llanelli at Ravenhill.

Larkin is called up in place of Jonny Bell while Scott Young replaces the injured Tyrone Howe.

Mark Blair continues in the second row in place of Jeremy Davidson.

Bell sustained medial ligament damage during last week's Heineken Cup victory over Cardiff and is expected to be out for two or three weeks.

However, coach Alan Solomons is not prepared to risk his midfield gem and has now paired Larkin with Shane Stewart in the centre.

Problems

Stewart, who also limped out of the Cardiff game, has fully recovered from a bout of cramp.

With Howe out until Christmas with a torn hamstring, Young gets his second start of the season after featuring in Ulster's 67-15 hammering of Caerphilly last month.

Davidson is to have an operation on Wednesday to remove a blood clot from his injured knee.

Blair, who had an excellent match against Cardiff, again partners Gary Longwell in the second row.

Coming back from injury to take their places on the bench are Ryan Constable and Sheldon Coulter.

Scarlet squad

Llanelli captain Leigh Davies is out with a head injury and is replaced at inside centre by Tongan international Salesi Finau.

Scott Quinnell plays, but Welsh squad member Martyn Madden is on the bench with John Davies starting in his place.

Llanelli director of rugby Gareth Jenkins said: "We realise that this is our last opportunity to get to the quarter-final stages. I feel as though we have grown as a team and the attitude in training this week has been great.

"Ulster are in form at the moment having beat Cardiff convincingly at home, but we're looking forward to going to Ravenhill.

"We have given John Davies, Luke Gross, Guy Easterby and Tal Selley an opportunity to play. We can't win games with 15 players, we share the games within the squad."

Ulster: B Cunningham; J Topping; S Stewart, A Larkin, S Young; D Humphreys, N Doak; J Fitzpatrick, M Sexton, R Kempson, G Longwell, M Blair, W Brosnihan, N McMillan, T McWhirter.
Reps: S Best, P Shields, M McCullough, N Best, K Campbell, S Coulter, R Constable.

Llanelli: Garan Evans, Mark Jones, Matthew Watkins, Salesi Finau, Taliesin Selley, Stephen Jones, Guy Easterby, Iestyn Thomas, Robin McBryde, John Davies, Luke Gross, Chris Wyatt, Dave Hodges, Dafydd Jones, Scott Quinnell.
Reps: Martyn Madden, Phil John, Vernon Cooper, Jamie Cudmore, Dwayne Peel, Gareth Bowen, Barry Davies.