The days when the Border Reivers were considered something of a soft touch appear at an end as coach Steve Bates has done an excellent job in making them more competitive. That was manifest in their superb 16-6 victory over the defending champions, the Ospreys, last time out.
Despite that win, Bates has opted to make five alterations to the team for what could be labelled as a bottom-of-the-table clash. Tom McGee replaces Bruce Douglas at prop, the Test player having damaged a foot.
In the back row John Dalziel starts at blindside flanker instead of Andy Rennick, while Semo Sititi makes his first start of the season at number eight, leaving Kelly Brown on the bench.
Behind the scrum Simon Danielli is back after illness and an ankle injury. Ben MacDougall has recovered from a stomach upset that forced him to miss the win against the Ospreys.
Connacht make a couple of changes from the team that lost to Llanelli. James Downey will play his first game of the season following injury, coming in at inside centre. Keith Matthews moves to the wing, and Matt Mostyn switches to fullback with David Slemen dropping to the replacements. Up front Matt Lacey is restored to the back row.
Having ended their nine-match losing streak against the Ospreys, the Reivers should be full of confidence arriving in Galway. But they face a team they have beaten only once in five attempts, and they have never won away from home in the Celtic League.
This is simply a must-win game for Connacht and coach Michael Bradley.
They played some excellent rugby against Llanelli but must continue to cut down on the errors. They'll have to retain that fluency behind the scrum and generate a little more headway up front. If the home side's form continues on an upward spiral they should squeeze home.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; C McPhillips, D Yapp, J Downey, K Matthews; P Warwick, T Tierney; D McFarland, J Fogarty, S Knoop; C Short, A Farley (capt); M Swift, M Lacey, C Rigney. Replacements: C Venter, R Hogan, J Muldoon, B O'Connor, C Keane, D Slemen, T Robinson.
BORDER REIVERS: C MacRae; N Walker, B MacDougall, G Law, S Danielli; C Hore, C Cusiter; P Thomson (capt), S Scott, T McGee; O Palepoi, M Blair; J Dalziel, A Miller, S Sititi. Replacements: R Ford, G Cross, C Stewart, W McEntee, K Brown, B McKerchar, L Kibble.
Referee: N Owens (Wales).
Head to head: August 2002 (CL) at Philiphaugh: Border Reivers 27 Connacht 28; September 2003 (CC) at Netherdale: Border Reivers 21 Connacht 26; October 2003 (CL) at Sportsground: Connacht 42 Border Reivers 19; March 2004 (CL) at Netherdale: Border Reivers 40 Connacht 29; October 2004 (CL) at Sportsground: Connacht 29 Border Reivers 27; January 2005 (CL) at Netherdale: Border Reivers 9 Connacht 18.
Leading try scorers: Connacht - Conor McPhillips, Paul Warwick, Chris Venter 1 each. Border Reivers - Ben McDougall, Gregor Townsend, Kelly Browne 1 each.
Leading scorers: Connacht - Paul Warwick 18. Border Reivers - Charlie Hore 18.
Verdict: Connacht to win.
