John Muldoon will win his 200th cap for Connacht against Cardiff Blues in the RaboDirect PRO12 on Friday – but the flanker is fully focused on continuing his side’s winning start to the season.

Under new head coach Pat Lam, Connacht saw of Zebre on the opening weekend of the season and will travel to the Arms Park for the first ever RaboDirect PRO12 match to be played on the Blues’ new artificial surface.

The Irish province have lost just one of their last four away matches however and they have won three of their last four clashes with Welsh opposition.

Their record against the Blues is poor but they did win in Cardiff last season for the first time since 2001, and flanker Muldoon, who made his Connacht bow in 2004, is determined to do so again.

“I am very proud I am from Connacht and it has been a tough place to be,” Muldoon told the Galway Advertiser.

“There are young players raring to go, everyone wants to play this Friday, and there is certainly a lot of competition here now.

“I have been around a long time and had good relations with both Eric [Elwood] and Brads [Michael Bradley], but when a new coach comes in, you have to knuckle down because he is going to give everyone a fair crack at the whip.

“I had a disruptive year last year with injury and loss of form towards the end of the season, but I have drawn a line under that and come back refreshed.

“Cardiff made a lot of changes over the summer. They had a tough game against Glasgow and they will be thinking ‘4G pitch let’s run the legs off Connacht’. On the other side we got a good win, we’re not entirely happy with the amount of errors, but hopefully we can put that right on Friday night.”

Lam has made two changes to the side that defeated Zebre with Gavin Duffy back at full-back for his first competitive game of the season.

Robbie Henshaw moves to outside centre while Tiernan O’Halloran, who came on from the bench last Saturday, starts on the right wing with Danie Poolman among the replacements.

The Blues went down 22-15 to Glasgow Warriors in their curtain-raiser last season and while they did pick up a losing bonus point, they have won just one of their last eight RaboDirect PRO12 matches.

Phil Davies has made three changes to the side with Andries Pretorius – who along with scrum-half Lloyd Williams will make his 50th appearance for the region – coming into the back row.

British & Irish Lions star Alex Cuthbert will make his first appearance of the season while Dafydd Hewitt gets the nod at inside centre.

"We are coming up against a very good team in Connacht and they have brought in some very talented players during the summer," said Davies.

"Pat Lam has taken over the coaching so I think there will be a slightly different emphasis in terms of the style of rugby they adopt. It will be a big challenge and we've got to perform well.

"Our ambition this season will be to put on a spectacle every time we play at the Arms Park and use the new surface to our advantage.

"We are trying to play an expansive style of rugby, but we also know we need to be effective with all facets of our game.

"What we must do is develop an all-round game that suits each and every occasion that we face. No matter what surface you play on, it's about having that balance in your game and being to execute it."

At Arms Park, 7.05pm.
Referee: Claudio Blessano (FIR, 4th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Simon Rees, Martyn Lewis (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Aurwel Morgan (WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

Live on BBC Wales and TG4