In January 2005, Connacht beat Grenoble 26-21 under the captaincy of the same Farley, now on the other side as team manager of the eighth-placed club in the Top 14 whose scalps at home this season include those of Toulon and Racing.
Farley, then in the second of his six seasons in Galway, ensured Connacht repeated the dose at home, winning 19-3 at a time when Europe's secondary competition, then known as the European Shield, operated a two-leg system.
Born in Queensland to Anglo-New Zealand parents, Farley moved from Connacht to Grenoble seven years ago but left behind such an enduring impression that when the teams met in a friendly last August, the Connacht Supporters' Club marked the occasion by inducting their former lock into the province's Hall of Fame.
If the result scarcely mattered back then in pre-season, it most certainly does now. A place in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup is at stake, another step closer to a trophy which guarantees the winner a place in next season's Champions' Cup.
Only four years ago, at Twickenham in 2012, Leinster and Ulster had turned Europe's premier competition into an all-Guinness PRO12 affair. Leinster duly made it three European titles in four seasons, a feat that Toulon have since emulated with a season to spare.
Only two of the Guinness PRO12 are left standing in the quarter-final line-up this weekend. The Newport Gwent Dragons have defied the odds to keep Connacht company in the last eight, no mean feat given that the Welsh region's qualification came from a pool including Castres, Pau and Sale Sharks.
They too must hit the road - all the way to the opposite side of the Severn and a quarter-final against Gloucester at Kingsholm. To say that the Dragons are overdue a break is to utter one of the under-statements of the season.
They have lost by a single score on ten occasions in the PRO12 - twice by a single point (against the Blues and Edinburgh), twice by two points (Ulster and Treviso), once by three points (Warriors), twice by five (Ospreys and Connacht) once by six (Ospreys) and twice by seven (Connacht and Ulster).
The majority of those defeats have been inflicted since the Dragons scored a ten-point home win over Leinster at Rodney Parade at the end of January. Ashton Hewitt accounted for the first of the Dragons' two tries since when Hallam Amos has resumed normal service on the opposite wing after a three-month recovery from his shoulder dislocation during the World Cup win over England at Twickenham last September.
The similarity between the Welsh region's wings extends beyond the fact that each has scored seven tries for the Dragons this season, Amos delivering six in his last five appearances in the PRO12. Both are in the process of preparing for life beyond rugby, Amos as a medical student, Hewitt by studying criminology.
The Dragons have been this way before. This time last year they had the immense satisfaction of beating their biggest and nearest rivals, Cardiff Blues, at Rodney Parade - just as they had beaten Brive at the same venue in an earlier quarter-final nine seasons ago when Kevin Morgan scored two tries from full back.
At Kingsholm, the Dragons will be ready to renew hostilities with two old foes from the Welsh domestic scene, fly-half James Hook and his fellow British & Irish Lion, hooker Richard Hibbard. The Irish reception party awaiting Connacht in Grenoble will be considerably larger, on and off the field.
Head coach Bernard Jackman won the Heineken Cup with Leinster in 2009. An international hooker in his own right, he knows what makes Connacht tick having played for them in the days when they were far too concerned with avoiding bottom to be aiming for the top as they have been in such glorious fashion this season.
Backs coach Mike Prendergast learnt his trade as a scrum half with Munster via Young Munster RFC. The players at the coaches' disposal include two from Ireland - scrum-half James Hart from Clontarf and Chris Farrell, a 23-year-old Ulsterman from Belfast, a centre in the gigantic, modern mould at 6ft 5in and 16 stone.
Previous European Challenge Cup quarter-finals:
Newport Gwent Dragons:
2014-15: beat Cardiff Blues (home) 25-21.
2006-07: beat Brive (home), 39-17.
Connacht:
2014-15: lost to Gloucester (away) 7-14.
2008-09: lost to Northampton (away) 13-42.
2005-06: lost to Newcastle Falcons (away) 3-23.
2004-05: beat Grenoble (away) 26-21, beat Grenoble (home) 19-3.
2003-04: beat Narbonne (away) 27-18, beat Narbonne (home) 16-10.
2002-03: lost to Pontypridd (home) 30-35, lost to Pontypridd (away) 9-12.
It may be a European weekend but the one match in the Guinness PRO12 will have a critical bearing on the frantic race to make the play-offs. After their maximum point win over Treviso last weekend, the Glasgow Warriors have stayed in Italy for Friday night's assignment against Zebre in Parma.
The match had been scheduled for early January but had to be postponed from because it clashed with the Warriors' delayed Champions' Cup tie against Racing rescheduled from last November following the Paris massacre.
Six straight wins have lifted the champions from mid-table into the top four for the first time since they won the trophy in Belfast last May. Another five-pointer would propel them above Scarlets into third place, within striking distance of Leinster and Connacht.
In what has already become a congested duel of unprecedented intensity for the four play-off positions and the reward of a home semi-final awaiting the top two, the outcome will surely stay in the balance for the Warriors until their last match of the season - Connacht in Galway on May 7.
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}