After three tough defeats on the road, Connacht are targeting a pitch-perfect performance in Friday's derby against Munster.
The Sportsground’s new all-weather surface will be unveiled as Connacht tackle their near neighbours in their first home game of the season.
The players have been training on the pitch since returning from South Africa and Andy Friend believes it suits the expansive, high-tempo game Connacht are trying to play.
"We want to be a team that plays and this allows us to play fast, so we're excited by it," said the Connacht head coach.
"It's a massive investment by Connacht Rugby and, I think, a brilliant investment.
"Let's hope Friday night is the first of many good wins on it."
Despite it being so early in the season, Friday’s derby already feels like a crucial game for both provinces after their stuttering starts.
Connacht sit bottom of the BKT United Rugby Championship ladder, without a point after three successive defeats, while Munster’s sole success was an underwhelming win against Zebre where they went scoreless for the final 52 minutes.
"You've got two teams at the moment that are searching for form," said Friend.
"It will be very emotional no doubt but it will come down to the team that physically fronts up, as it always is against Munster, and also the team that makes the least amount of errors and gives away the least amount of penalties.
"We're very aware of that. It is a formula we've been using when we've played them the last few years and I think the start for both teams is going to be really important. You want to get a foothold into the game early on and let's hope it’s us doing that."
Darren Cave and Eddie O'Sullivan analysed Connacht's defensive problems on Against The Head
Like Munster, Connacht have yet to click on the pitch following a coaching restructure during the summer. Jarrad Butler said training and preparation has never been better but they were unable to transfer that onto the pitch in the away defeats against Ulster, Stormers and Bulls.
"Every rugby game shows a slightly different story but the bottom line is that we're making too many errors," said Friend.
"There's too many pressure releases in the game so we know that, we have to fix that and we will. We're working our damnedest to try and fix that and let's hope that happens on Friday.
"The first game, discipline hurt us massively and the second game wasn't too dissimilar, we gave away too many simple penalties.
Testing 1,2 📣
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Testing 1,2 ✅️
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"We were better with our discipline [against the Bulls] although it was still 15 [penalties]. I clocked them and I call them either red penalties, green or amber and we had six red penalties in that last game, against 12 conceded against Ulster, so we've definitely halved the amount of dumb-assed penalties over the course of three games, which is a good thing, but we need to be far better than that.
"And some of that is just the most basic of skill errors, kicks out on the full, dropped passes, forward passes, and they're things that we spend a lot of time working on.
"I can't put my finger on it to be honest with you. At the end of the day I sit at the top of the tree so I must own that but there's been a push there to get players and staff more aware of the need for us to do the basics of training, which we've been doing anyway.
"Let's hope it transfers across to the field on Friday night and then beyond."
