Connacht have been handed a significant boost ahead of their Champions Cup opener against Montpellier as Ultan Dillane is available for selection.
The Top 14 club travel to the Sportsground for the Sunday afternoon fixture and head coach Andy Friend will have the Ireland international available after he missed the 22-11 defeat to Leinster last weekend.
Second row is an area where the 2016 Pro14 champions have been hit hard, with Gavin Thornbury, Quinn Roux and Sean O'Brien also sidelined.
O'Brien, along with Peter McCabe, has been swapped out the 41-man squad for the group stages, but can be included again from the knockout stages should Connacht make it that far.
Dominic Robertson-McCoy is set to take over at hooker after Finlay Bealham retired from the 31-point loss last Friday night in the third minute, though Friend says the hangover from that loss is now gone.
"It was a painful weekend," he told RTÉ Sport. "It’s probably the one time you don’t want to play on a Friday night because we had three days to ponder. There was a bit of dented pride.
"We had some honest conversations and put it all to bed."
The head coach admits the performance last time out will have the visitors licking eyeing a victory on the road.
"They will have watched our game last week and be thinking, 'we have a good chance against Connacht’".
'We had some honest conversations and put it all to bed' - @connachtrugby head coach @AndyFriend2011 talks to @DarrenFrehill about the returning Ultan Dillane, the heavy Leinster loss and what he expects from Montpellier this weekend pic.twitter.com/Ff9Qmbf86Y
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) November 13, 2019
The game will mark Friend’s first taste of Europe’s premier club competition. He left Harlequins the year they qualified for the Champions Cup in 2008, and last season the Westerners bowed out of the Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage.
The 50-year-old is expecting a strong physical examination from the bruising French club, who occupy mid-table spot in the Top 14.
"Normally the French don’t like to travel too much," he said. "Maybe we will turn the weather on, we’ll wait and see, but we’ll make life as uncomfortable as we can for them. Hopefully that will be enough.
"They are big physical men and will be right up for it. If we get into an arm wrestle, we will probably lose.
"We want to open the game up a bit and play our style of attacking rugby."
