The Northern Irishmen have one win in their last four games and travel to the Stadio Monigo tomorrow to face a Benetton Treviso side fresh from back-to-back wins over Zebre Rugby and chasing a third successive victory for the first time since December 2012.

Ulster have made two changes from the team that lost to Leinster last time out, with Louis Ludik preferred at full-back to Peter Nelson, who moves to the replacements bench.

And Franco van der Merwe misses his first game of the season with a chest infection, so Alan O'Connor starts in the second row.

And Clarke has backed his team to launch a fresh winning run that will take them all the way to the top.

"This is going to be the game that makes sure that we remain within touching distance," he said.

"When you look at the other fixtures you would expect the top sides to all get wins. However nothing is certain in this league.

"We have lost four matches, but when you look at the teams above us in the division they have either lost four or three.

"I think our destiny is very much in our own hands. We are determined that at the back-end of the season, when a lot of our senior, quality players are back, that we will be competing for the PRO12 championship."

Treviso have not defeated an Irish side since Connacht were seen off in October 2013 and have only beaten Ulster once in their last 14 meetings - a 23-12 win in October 2011.

The home side have made seven changes to the team that triumphed over their Italian rivals last week.

Luca Morisi will pair Michele Campagnaro at centre, while Edoardo Gori will be the scrum-half and Andrea Pratichetti moves to the wing.

Alessandro Zanni and Marco Barbini come into the back row, while Rupert Harden gets the nod at tighthead prop following injury. Captain Antonio Pavanello is ill, so Tomas Vallejos replaces him.

"It's good for the league that teams are taking points off each other but it's critically important that we're taking the points this weekend," added Clarke.

"We're under no illusions of the respect that we need to give Treviso but we've also got to back ourselves.

"We've got to be mentally switched on, but I've no doubt we will be because the player group realise how important this weekend is."

At Stadio Monigo, 3pm local time (2pm Ireland & UK)
Live on Nuvilari and BBC NI

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU, 2nd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Davies, Barrie Gregory (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Stefano Marrama (FIR)
TMO: Derek Bevan (WRU)