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Pressure mounts on Connacht Rugby to deliver a winning performance when Cardiff Blues arrive at the Galway Sportsground on Saturday (3.15pm). Cardiff, without a win this season, will take heart from fellow Welsh outfit Dragons, whose fighting performance saw them romp to victory over Kieran Keane's side last weekend. However this week Connacht forwards coach Jimmy Duffy says Connacht are in a better place having completed the review of that 21-8 defeat to Bernard Jackman's side.

Pressure mounts on Connacht Rugby to deliver a winning performance when Cardiff Blues arrive at the Galway Sportsground on Saturday (3.15pm).

This time last year Connacht were working their way to a first Guinness Pro 12 trophy and Champions Cup rugby. Twelve months later they are facing a possible play-off against the French or English to qualify again. It is hardly the position they expected to be in - certainly not returning to Parma to play Zebre in the refixed Pro 12 game this Saturday - when Irish eyes are in Thomond Park.

This time last year Connacht were working their way to a first Guinness Pro 12 trophy and Champions Cup rugby. Twelve months later they are facing a possible play-off against the French or English to qualify again. It is hardly the position they expected to be in - certainly not returning to Parma to play Zebre in the refixed Pro 12 game this Saturday - when Irish eyes are in Thomond Park.

Connacht, a little more positive on the injury front, face familiar Italian foes Zebre in the Galway Sportsground's final Champions Cup pool fixture this season.

Connacht will need to take another step up in their Pro 12 title defence when they host unbeaten Ulster at the Galway Sportsground tomorrow evening (7.35pm).

Pat Lam - coach: "I knew it was going to be a challenge, a different style. I know people mentioned old dogs don't learn new tricks, that's wrong, I'm old too and I'm learning right through and I am excited about where I might be in five years' time."

The first team to represent Connacht in rugby played against Leinster on December 8 1885. At that time, the game in the west was played by just a few schools. In the city, it was really only UCG and the Grammar School who played with any regularity. By the beginning of the last century the Jes, the Bish, and St Mary’s were competing. The growth of the game was interrupted by World War I and by the War of Independence, but it improved a lot after the truce.

Connacht players are taking a well deserved holiday this week after a perfect finish to an exhaustive run of 16 games on the trot. A bonus-point victory over top-of-the-table Scarlets ensured Connacht remain in the Guinness Pro 12 top four, and are level on points with Scarlets, who continue to hold pole position due to a superior win count.

Connacht players are taking a well deserved holiday this week after a perfect finish to an exhaustive run of 16 games on the trot.