Connacht will be hoping for a victory that could see them take a huge step toward playing in next season's Heineken European Cup. They'll need to beat the Dragons in their own lair or hope Cardiff lose to The Borders, an unlikely scenario.
The Irish province's task would ordinarily be a very tough one - especially since the Dragons have the incentive of bidding for a home tie in the Celtic Cup quarter-finals - but in recent weeks the Welsh side have shown unaccustomed fragility; they have slipped to three successive losses and scored just 11 points while conceding 87.
Connacht will be hoping for a repeat of the result when they last played the Dragons at the Sportsground; they won 19-14 in November.
Dragons have made two changes to the team that lost last weekend. Rod Snow replaces Adam Black in the front row and Chris Anthony comes in for Rhys Thomas.
Wales Grand Slam skipper Michael Owen has recovered from a knee injury and will start. But another Lions tourist, Gareth Cooper, is out with an ankle injury.
Connacht are expected to finalise their team this morning. Brendan O'Connor (Achilles) and John Fogarty (back) are carrying knocks while John Muldoon will miss the rest of the season with a thumb injury.
A Connacht victory here would be a tremendous feat given the context and importance of this match.
GWENT DRAGONS: K Morgan; G Wyatt, P Montgomery, A Bryant, B Breeze; C Sweeney, G Baber; R Snow, S Jones, C Anthony, I Gough, L Charteris, J Ringer, J Forster (capt), Michael Owen.
CONNACHT (probable): M Mostyn; C McPhillips, D Yapp, M McHugh, D Slemen; E Elwood, C Keane; R Hogan, B Jackman, P Bracken, C Short, A Farley (capt), M Swift, M Lacey, J O'Sullivan.
Referee: Alan Williamson (SRU).
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/b8579731-42ca-490f-b2ff-27eb94cbcd65.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)