Since winning in Newport 30-25 this time last year, Connacht have been on the wrong end of too many near misses in Wales - losing to the Blues in Cardiff last season by one point, by four at the same venue in early December and by two at Llanelli in the New Year when Steven Shingler's last-minute penalty squeezed the Scarlets home.
Their one successful Welsh venture came during the penultimate week of the Rugby World Cup, a 21-16 win over the Ospreys at Swansea in late October. Another will be crucial if Connacht are to make the quantum leap from the lower half of the table into the play-offs.
They will not require any reminders about the Dragons and their capacity for bringing a shuddering reality to one of sport's oldest maxims, the one about the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Munster will testify to that, having finished a distant second at Newport in early December when they chose to rest a few the week before their Champions' Cup tie against Leicester.
In the event of Connacht scrambling to the top of the pile, they could be removed 24 hours later by one of three challengers. Leinster, in fourth place with a game in hand, meet Zebre at the RDS Arena where the former champions have not been beaten in the GUINNESS PRO12 since the Dragons won there almost exactly twelve months ago.
Ulster, out in front by a point thanks to Paddy Jackson's decisive penalty against the Dragons in Belfast last Friday, stay at home for arguably the match of the round against the Warriors.
Scotland's dependence on their GUINNESS PRO12 champions dictates that the holders' line up will bear little resemblance to when they were last in Belfast for what proved to be their finest hour (and 20 minutes). A four-try win over Munster ensured the Glaswegians won the 2015 GUINNESS PRO Final in a grand manner.
Now, even allowing for the fact that they have two games fewer than every one else bar Leinster and Munster, the Warriors can ill afford to allow the gap separating them from the top four to widen beyond the current ten points if they are to earn a play-off, as per usual.
Friday night also features the collision of two more top-four contenders, Scarlets and Edinburgh in Llanelli. Cardiff Blues, whose full back Dan Fish has scored five tries in the last four outings, take their four-match winning streak to Treviso where the Italians have yet to win this season.
Munster, beaten finalists last year, have their sights fixed firmly on reclaiming the GUINNESS PRO12 title they last won five years ago albeit with a team almost totally different to the current one, complete the weekend against Ospreys in Cork on Sunday evening, St Valentine's Day.
By then the second round of the Six Nations will have come and gone, featuring more players from the GUINNESS PRO12 than the English Premiership and French Top 14 put together.
Of the 138 players on match duty for the opening weekend, the GUINNNESS PRO12 accounted for more than 50 per cent with all twelve teams contributing. The total of 73 compared to 35 from the English Premiership, 27 from the Ligue Nationale de Rugby and two from Eccellenza, the highest level of club competition in Italy.
The one unattached member of the cast, the newly-capped France wing Virimi Vakatawa, had been promoted straight from the national sevens team into the Stade de France where he proceeded to turn his first pass into a try against Italy.
The break-down of where the GUINNESS PRO12 players come from is based on the 23-man squads as selected by Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales last week. It does not tell the whole story because many more from the top of the GUINNESS competition to the bottom form the larger Six Nations squads but it does give an idea of how the teams have been affected and how their resources have been stretched.
Leinster 10 for Ireland:
(Johnny Sexton, Jack McGrath, Mick McCarthy, Devin Toner, Jamie Heaslip, Dave Kearney, Ian Madigan, Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, Rhys Ruddock.) Total number in Ireland squad - 17.
Zebre 9 for Italy:
(Leonardo Sarto, George Biagi, Gonzalo Garcia, Andrea Lovotti, Guglielmo Palazzani, Dries van Schalkwyk, Carlo Canna, Valerio Bernabo, Kelly Haimona).
Total number in Italy squad - 13.
Warriors 9 for Scotland:
(Stuart Hogg, Mark Bennett, Tommy Seymour, Finn Russell, Johnny Gray, Gordon Reid, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Duncan Weir).
Total number in Scotland squad - 16.
Benetton Treviso 8 for Italy:
(Edoardo Gori, Ornel Gega, Marco Fuser, Francesco Minto, Alessandro Zanni, Davide Giazzon, Matteo Zanusso, Luke McLean).
Total number in Italy squad - 10.
Edinburgh 7 for Scotland:
(Alasdair Dickinson, Matt Scott, Ross Ford, WP Nel, John Hardie, Stuart McInally, Sam Hildago-Clyne).
Total number in Scotland squad: 9.
Munster 7 for Ireland:
(Simon Zebo, Keith Earls, Conor Murray, CJ Stander, Tommy O'Donnell, Donnacha Ryan, James Cronin)
Total number in Ireland squad - 7.
Scarlets 6 - 5 for Wales, 1 for Scotland:
(Liam Williams, Gareth Davies, Rob Evans, Samson Lee, Ken Owens, John Barclay (Sco)).
Total number in Wales squad - 7.
Blues - 5 for Wales:
(Sam Warburton, Tom James, Lloyd Williams, Gethin Jenkins, Alex Cuthbert).
Total number in Wales squad - 9.
Ospreys - 5 for Wales:
(Dan Biggar, Scott Baldwin, Alun-Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric, Dan Lydiate).
Total number in Wales squad - 7.
Connacht - 3 for Ireland:
(Robbie Henshaw, Nathan White, Kieran Marmion).
Total number in Ireland squad: 4.
Ulster - 3 for Ireland:
(Andrew Trimble, Jared Payne, Rory Best).
Total number in Ireland squad - 6.
Dragons - 1 for Wales
(Taulupe Faletau).
Total number in Wales squad - 2.
To buy tickets for the GUINNESS PRO12 Grand Final click here. Also follow us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter, sign up to our YouTube channel for extensive match highlights and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on the GUINNESS PRO12.
63x46.png){kind=logo}