THREE LOUTH PLAYERS will make their Championship débuts when they line out for the Wee County against Laois on Sunday.
Manager Aidan O’Rourke has named John Bingham, Conor Rafferty and Ciaran Byrne in the starting XV for the clash in Portlaoise.
Two of the changes were forced on O’Rourke because Conor McGuinness and Darren Clarke have failed to recover from injury in time.
Laois’ Justin McNulty, meanwhile, has named no fewer than 11 of the team who started their last Championship game of 2012 with Donie Kingston making a welcome return to the fold for the county.
The home team go into the fixture at O’Moore Park as slight favourites.
Laois: E Culliton; M Timmons, D Booth, P O’Leary; D Strong, J O’Loughlin (Capt), P McMahon; C Boyle, B Quigley; R Munnelly, D Kingston, C Begley; D O’Connor, G Walsh, C Kelly
Louth: N Gallagher; P Rath, D Finnegan, J Bingham; J O’Brien, D Crilly, A Reid; P Keenan, B Donnelly; A McDonnell, B White, C Rafferty; C Byrne, S Lennon, D Maguire