Connacht coach Andy Friend acknowledged it had been a very disappointing Christmas period for the province but says the return of several front-rank players should boost them ahead of Saturday's Champions Cup clash with Toulouse.
The westerners lost all three of their inter-provincial encounters in recent weeks, beginning with a home loss to Munster, and then continuing with heavy defeats away from home against Ulster and Leinster.
The latter two scorelines carried echoes of the bad all days when Connacht were the perennial whipping boys in the interpros. In the games in Belfast and Dublin, they conceded a combined total of 89 points and responded with only 10.
It was a harrowing fortnight for Connacht and Friend admits they were way off the pace. With the French aristocrats heading to Galway this weekend for a vital European tie, the head coach is heartened by the return of several stars who've been absent in recent weeks, notably Jack Carty and Bundee Aki.
"We got none from three and that's not what we're about or what we wanted," he told RTÉ Sport.
"To lose to Munster at home really hurt. And then we went to Kingspan and the RDS and both Ulster and Leinster were far too good on the night.
"There's a multitude of reasons. Certainly, injuries haven't helped us. The beauty of that is we have eight players coming back this week. Finally, we have some numbers at training, we'll be able to get 32 players out there and run 15 on 15.
"Having the likes of Jack Carty, Bundee Aki, our captain Jarrad Butler, Colby Fainga'a, there's some big names we've been missing over the last few weeks. We get those back this weekend and that's going to be important for us."
Connacht are still in the hunt in Pool 5 with two games remaining, sitting one point behind Gloucester in third place.
Toulouse have won four from four thus far and Connacht suffered a 32-17 in the reverse fixture at Stade Ernest-Wallon in November.
But Connacht have been exceptionally dogged and resilient at home, ekeing out wins over Montpellier and Gloucester, the latter achieved in especially dramatic circumstances.
"I do believe we can beat Toulouse this weekend," says Friend. "We were very close to them over there, the last 25 minutes just got away from us.
"They've got to come to the Sportsground this weekend. From all reports, we'll turn on a Galway day for them. If we can knock off Toulouse here, we're definitely still alive."
