RUGBY: The eagerly anticipated return of Leinster's stellar backs, ie some bloke called Brian and his buddies, is a decidedly mixed blessing for Connacht when they have the honour of rolling out the red carpet for their seasonal reappearance at the Sportsground on Friday.

On the one hand it should heighten interest out west, but on the other it might just make it a tad more difficult to topple Leinster.

This is Connacht's fourth of six successive Magners Celtic League games in their new Friday nights under-lights slot in Galway and the expected return of O'Driscoll, Shane Horgan, Girvan Dempsey and perhaps Gordon D'Arcy, not to mention the exciting emergence of their latest backline tyro, Luke Fitzgerald, ought to generate Connacht's biggest home crowd of the season.

Says coach Michael Bradley: "The crowds have been great. It was a little bit down last week, probably because of the Ryder Cup, but with all Leinster's star names back on board there should be a big crowd again this Friday and to be honest we enjoy it. We'll also have Ulster's full squad the following week and we've had the Ospreys at full strength and Llanelli with their full squad. In terms of the quality, it makes it both a test for us and a fest of rugby from a local point of view."

Not that Leinster won't travel with some degree of trepidation, especially at a venue that has been unkind to them. Indeed, Leinster have lost on six of their last 10 treks to the Sportsground. Admittedly, they have won the last four meetings between the provinces, although that said they were all closely contested affairs. Connacht extended them to a hard-earned 16-13 win just a fortnight before Leinster's epic Heineken European Cup quarter-final victory in Toulouse last season and the previous year pushed them to nine-point and five-point wins.

"We did very well against them in our two meetings last year. In fact Brian O'Driscoll didn't play in either match but most of their leading players did and it was bits of brilliance by Horgan, D'Arcy and Dempsey that caused us problems. Their top players performed but we had chances and we're looking forward to this game big time. They've usually been good battles up front and visits by Leinster to Galway always have a special feel to them."

Connacht are in the rarefied position of looking down on Leinster in the nascent league table, and while no one realistically expects that to last until the end of the 20-game programme, the league does offer Connacht their likeliest means of reaching their own Holy Grail, namely as one of the automatic three Irish qualifiers for the European Cup or by way of the play-off against an Italian side through finishing above the third Scottish and fourth Welsh side.

The alternative route, winning the European Challenge Cup, is a taller ask even though Connacht reached the knockout stages for the last three years.

Connacht reached the semi-finals three and two seasons ago, only to lose to eventual champions Harlequins and Sale, and last season went out to Newcastle in the quarter-finals.

"The further you progress in the Challenge Cup the more likely you are to reach serious opposition," says Bradley, pointing to Sale winning the competition as a prelude to winning the English Premiership last season, "and last season's winners, Gloucester, are near the top of the Premiership this season".

To which might be added Connacht have a particularly tough draw this season with both Bath and Harlequins in their pool.

Connacht have given themselves a reasonably good platform this season and Bradley is pleased with a start which sees them as one of only three sides to have suffered only one defeat. "If you were to repeat each block of four matches and we emerged with two wins and a draw from each of them, I would be delighted.

"But we knew we had a better side this season than last season. We have serious competition for places. We were very happy with our wins over the Borders and the Ospreys."

Connacht expect to be without John Hearty for a few weeks with a strained medial ligament, but against that expect to have their own Australian sevens player, Paul Warwick, back from injury, and, just as importantly given the current strain on their frontrow resources, prop Ray Hogan as well for his first outing of the campaign.