They do so with the returning quartet of Stuart Hogg, Ryan Grant, DTH van der Merwe and Josh Strauss and they will be looking to begin their campaign with a pair of victories for the first time since 2009/10.

Ruaridh Jackson is promoted from the bench while Scotland U20 captain Jonny Gray replaces the injured Al Kellock.

And Townsend sees no reason why they can't topple the province on home soil having won three of their last five fixtures with Irish sides.

"Although it wasn't our most accurate performance last week, we were pleased to win our opening game against Cardiff Blues," said Townsend.

"The players showed great resilience and ambition in the final quarter to deliver our first victory of the season.

"Our work in defence and in the contact area on Friday was positive and is something we can build on going into our game against Ulster.

"We are well aware of the strengths of our opponents and their home record, so we will have to be close to our best at Ravenhill.

"We're delighted to be able to welcome back Stuart Hogg and Ryan Grant into the squad. They returned to pre-season training slightly later than the rest of the group, but have trained really well over the last few weeks.

"We're also pleased to be able to welcome back DTH van der Merwe and Josh Strauss for this game, while Ruaridh Jackson will make his first start since he played for Scotland in the summer."

Ulster kicked off their campaign with a 15-8 defeat at Newport Gwent Dragons and head coach Mark Anscombe has challenged his troops to respond.

Anscombe has made seven personnel changes - one forced as Ireland winger Andrew Trimble undergoes finger surgery.

David McIlwaine moves to the right wing in place of Trimble, while Darren Cave returns to the backline at outside centre.

Wing Michael Allen is also selected with Ian Porter picked at scrum-half in place of Paul Marshall who is named on the bench.

Declan Fitzpatrick is in at tighthead, while in the back row Sean Doyle is named at openside with Nick Williams starting at No.8.

And Anscombe admits he is looking for his side to continue their fine form against the Warriors which has seen them win the last four clashes between the sides at Ravenhill.

"A good squad is one that can respond to poor performances and bounce back," he said.

"What we have to do is to right the wrongs and get our accuracy a bit better than it was last week. If we can get that right then we can get a reasonable performance."

At Ravenhill Stadium, 7.05pm.
Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 9th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Gary Conway, Kevin Beggs (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: John West (IRFU)
TMO: Peter Ferguson (IRFU)

Live on BBC NI and BBC ALBA