Sam Prendergast deserves the chance to lead Leinster’s attack against the Lions in Saturday night’s URC quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium (KO 8pm, live on TG4 and Premier Sports), insists the province’s head coach Leo Cullen.There are eight changes to the team that started last Saturday’s 41-19 defeat to Bordeaux in the Champions Cup final.The return of Prendergast at outhalf having been omitted from the matchday squad in Bilbao, and Ciarán Frawley’s exclusion from this week’s 23 after his impressive showing as Harry Byrne’s 43rd-minute replacement, is the main talking point, followed by the reinstatement of James Lowe for his 100th Leinster cap.Speaking this afternoon, Cullen described the atmosphere around the province’s set-up as akin to a funeral and said the players were grieving a fifth final loss since their last triumph in 2018.“It’s been a challenging few days,” he said. “There’s so much work that goes into getting to a final, but it’s like this grieving cycle that everyone goes through now. Nobody’s died, but that’s exactly what it feels like.“People have poured their heart and soul into this Champions Cup campaign, so to see it sort of come crashing down ... listen, it was a pretty amazing place to be that weekend. It was just a pretty horrific feeling at the end for everyone coming off the back of that.”Explaining Prendergast’s selection for the first time since the regular season victory over Lions on May 9th, Cullen said: “It’s always a balance, and we’re lucky with the guys that we have there.“Sam, as you know, he’s a super talented young man and we want to keep giving the guy opportunities. I think you’ve seen it, even though he’s 23 years of age, he’s multiple Irish caps under his belt already.“So it’s not just us as coaches here who think that the guy has an unbelievable amount of potential, it’s the Irish coaches as well. We all want to see him progress.“We need to keep giving him these opportunities. It’s a great opportunity for him this week. He’s been unlucky in terms of missing out in selection last week.“That freshness, it’s fresh energy in the group. It’s hugely important. But it’s over now to Sam and the rest of the players that are picked this weekend. We all need to get behind Sam because we see him as a huge part of the future of not just Leinster, but Irish rugby as well.“Harry’s been very good over the course of this campaign as well. We think we’ve got a strong group across the board. Some guys drop out, a few guys, as I said, bang, bangs and knocks.”Garry Ringrose misses out after picking up a niggle in training on Tuesday, Jack Conan is nursing a knock and Rónan Kelleher has a neck issue.“We tried to freshen things up by putting a few guys on the bench. So, and hopefully they will give that level of required experience later in the game as well. Hopefully we can get this job done.”Meanwhile, Connacht have been boosted by the return of forwards Dylan Tierney-Martin and Darragh Murray as head coach Stuart Lancaster has named his squad for tomorrow’s URC quarter-final with Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun Stadium (KO 7.45pm Irish time, live on TG4 and Premier Sports). Leinster team to play Lions: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O’Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Caelan Doris (capt).Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Alex Usanov, Thomas Clarkson, Diarmuid Mangan, Josh van der Flier, Jamison Gibson-Park, Harry Byrne, Robbie Henshaw.Connacht team to play Glasgow: Sam Gilbert; Shane Jennings, John Devine, Bundee Aki, Shayne Bolton; Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy; Billy Bohan, Dylan Tierney-Marti, Sam Illo, Josh Murphy, Darragh Murray, Cian Prendergast (capt), Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle.Replacements: Dave Heffernan, Peter Dooley, Finlay Bealham, Joe Joyce, Sean O’Brien, Matthew Devine, Hugh Gavin, Seán Naughton.