The western province got their Pool 5 campaign off to a winning start against Montpellier at the Sportsground, but two losses to Toulouse and another away defeat to Gloucester scuppered their hopes of reaching the knock-out stages for the first time.

Friend hopes his strong side can deliver at the GGL Stadium and finish their continental season with a bang.

“No, you definitely didn't see the best of Connacht in the Champions Cup, I thought you saw glimpses of it. And that's been a frustrating thing, we've had glimpses, we haven't had a sustained 80 minutes for probably a good couple of months now,” said Freind, who has at least seen has injury list shorten this week, with the return of Kieran Marmion to the starting line up.

“And that's what we got to get back to. We know we haven't played our best football either. We've been disappointed.

"There’s been a lot of good strong conversations (to discuss those failings)

“We had all players come in this week and we asked them to ‘give me one area that from this day forward, you're going to add to your training program, that’s going to make you a better footballer’. All those conversations are taking place. We're climbing out of that hole and we’ll come to the top of it pretty soon.”

As well as Marmion’s return to the starting side for the first time since November, Jack Carty and Bundee Aki both start, while recent Ireland call up Dave Heffernan is handed the first choice hooker’s shirt.

Kyle Godwin and John Porch also start for Connacht, who have made seven changes to the side that lost last weekend against Toulouse.

Despite being out of the running also, Montpellier will be keen to avoid a second straight loss in the competition after they also lost to French rivals Toulouse in Round 4.

“They'll be disappointed like we are that they can't go any further in the Champions Cup, but they're at home. They'll be probably smarting a little bit from the loss they had over here in Galway. They’ve lots of good footballers in there along with lots of big physical men too.

We’ll be challenged at the breakdown that's going to be the big area. They’ll try and win the collisions and if they don’t win the collision in the tackle, they'll try and win the collision at the breakdown. If we can protect those first two rucks then I think we'll find space.

After tomorrow’s game, Connacht have two weekends without action, but will then turn all of their focus to improving their position in the PRO14 and returning to the knock-out stages in their quest to secure top-flight European qualification next season.

“In a weird way, as disappointed as we are, we know we’ve got one task after this weekend. And that's to qualify for Champions Cup again next year, and to make sure we get that home quarter-final we were searching for in the PRO14,” said Friend.

“So it does sharpen your mind; you can now look at the calendar ahead and you can earmark now when you got some breaks too. We can actually formulate our season plan, and everything just focuses in on those games.”