Four capped players –Allan Jacobsen, Jim Hamilton,Dave Callam and centre Ben Cairns – come into the side for the trip to Irish side Connacht on Friday night with the opportunity to go top of the table.

Loosehead Kyle Traynor is one of the players who gives way while hooker Andrew Kelly holds off the challenge of Lions hooker Ross Ford to keep his place in the front row.

And with every player fighting for their shirt, Moffat is relishing the levels of competition going into the business end of the season.

He said: “There is so much competition for a lot of positions in the team, especially for the loosehead spot between Kyle (Traynor) and Chunk (Allan Jacobsen).

“Chunk had a good Six Nations and we decided to give him a start for this one. Jim (Hamilton) was out with a back injury last week, but he has trained well this week, so he returns.

“Andrew has played well and it is good for him to keep the jersey. But Ross Ford will still have a big part to play during the game and it is important that we manage him well after what has been a demanding 12 months in his career.

“The situation in the back row is that we are still carefully managing Ross Rennie, so he was not available for selection this week and we decided to give David Callam a start.

“It is a tough game for us and we need to keep moving forward. We know that we didn't play particularly well last week and that we must improve against Connacht.

“With four games left, we know that we control whether or not we will qualify for the play-offs.

“We are in a good position, but the really hard work starts now. Everybody knows that we must keep performing to a high standard and winning matches.”