Rob Herring to captain Ulster from hooker against Edinburgh

Rob Herring takes over from Rory Best as captain and hooker on Friday night for Ulster’s Pro 12 clash against Edinburgh at Ravenhill.

Les Kiss makes a number of changes for the battle between seventh as sixth, with his side looking to leapfrog Alan Solomons’ side.

Herring is joined in the frontrow by Ricky Lutton and Kyle McCall, while Franco van der Merwe returns to the side at lock and Roger Wilson returns to number eight. They are joined in the pack by Ireland trio Iain Henderson, Chris Henry and Dan Tuohy.

Ruan Pienaar, who picked up his 100th cap in last week’s loss to Leinster, resumes at scrumhalf with Paddy Jackson outside him at 10, while Luke Marsha;; comes into midfield alongside Darren Cave.

Andrew Trimble starts on the wing, with Rory Scholes and Peter Nelson making up the rest of the back three.

Ulster: P Nelson, A Trimble, D Cave, L Marshall, R Scholes, P Jackson, R Pienaar, K McCall, R Herring , R Lutton, D Tuohy, F van der Merwe, I Henderson, C Henry, R Wilson.

Replacements: J Andrew, A Warwick, W Herbst, A O'Connor, N Williams, P Marshall, S McCloskey, L Ludik

Edinburgh: Jack Cuthbert, Dougie Fife, Chris Dean, Matt Scott, Will Helu, Phil Burleigh, Sean Kennedy, Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford, WP Nel, Anton Bresler, Alex Toolis, Mike Coman, John Hardie, Cornell Du Preez.

Replacements: Neil Cochrane, Rory Sutherland, John Andress, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Nathan Fowles, Michael Allen, Blair Kinghorn