Connacht director of coaching Eric Elwood admits he has to pinch himself this RaboDirect PRO12 season when he looks at the strength and depth of his squad.

After last season’s best-ever RaboDirect PRO12 finish of eighth, Connacht don’t look like they are prepared to move in any other direction other than forward if their summer recruitment drive is anything to go by.

Fly-half Dan Parks has arrived from Cardiff Blues, while Nathan White and Willie Faloon will also strut their stuff in a Connacht shirt this season having moved across from Irish rivals Leinster and Ulster respectively.

Add this to the core of players that finished eighth last time out, Niall O’Connor having rejoined Ulster, then you can understand Elwood’s excitement ahead of the visit of Cardiff Blues to the Sportsground.

“It’s important to get a good start. If you get a good start, then you have the momentum straight away. Whatever 15 we have on the park, I believe we will be good enough to win the game,” said Elwood.

“Everyone else is putting their hands up, but we will leave it as late as possible to give everyone a chance.

“Any team is only as good as its strength in depth, so whether Dan Parks is playing or Miah [Nikora], we have better options in each position than last year.

“The key for us is that there will be times when players will be called upon to play, so the point is that when they get the opportunity, they have to take it.

“I am hoping with the competitiveness we have within our squad, it will drive our standards up, drive our style, accuracy, and execution, and hopefully it will get us to where we want to be.

“We certainly like to think that with the experience and stability in our squad, we can turn over some of those narrow defeats had last year.”

Despite an influx of new faces over the summer, Connacht still start their RaboDirect PRO12 campaign without Paul O’Donohoe, Eoin McKeown, Brian Murphy, Dave Nolan and Jason Harris-Wight all definitely ruled out.

New signing Parks also misses out through injury but Kieran Marmion is handed his first cap at scrum-half.

Phil Davies begins life as Scarlets’ director of rugby without ten first-team players, Wales captain Sam Warburton and fellow internationals Alex Cuthbert, Leigh Halfpenny and Bradley Davies are all unavailable because of their conditioning programme while Lions centre Jamie Roberts is still recovering from a knee injury.

Front-row pair Tom Davies and Andy Kyriacou make their competitive Blues debuts alongside second-row Robin Copeland and flanker Rory Watt-Jones, while Gareth Davies and Gavin Evans form a makeshift centre partnership.

But Davies believes the situation will improve when the bulk of the internationals return to action next weekend.

“I am confident we can go out and play well on Saturday and gain a result which is the most important thing,” said Davies.

“We are looking forward to the start of the season, after a pretty gruelling pre-season and the players have worked very hard.

“A lot of work has been carried out over the summer to improve all our team system and hopefully that focus will be there Saturday and then there for the next 21 games after that.

“The international players have a specific training programme so we are missing a number of them.

“Following their conditioning block and recovery block they will be available on Monday until the autumn internationals, so we have them for the next eight games after this first match.

“As of Monday we have almost a full squad to pick from which is great, it’s trying to get them all fit and fighting to play each week.”

At Sportsground, 5pm.
Referee: Andrew McMenemy (SRU, 12th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Leo Colgan, Olly Hodges (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Murray Whyte (IRFU)