Connacht coach Andy Friend says he will field a full strength team in his side’s final Champions Cup game of the season against Montpellier despite already being out of the running to qualify for the latter stages of the competition.

With a €20m boost in funding for their Sportsground redevelopment project in the bag, Andy Friend’s Connacht need to secure victory against French champions Toulouse to keep their hopes of reaching the Champions Cup quarter-finals alive.

Andy Friend has some big names back for their Champions Cup showdown against French champions Toulouse.

First, the good news for Connacht. Yes, there is some.

Quinn Roux’s hopes of returning to the Irish side for the start of the Six Nations have been dashed with the 29-year-old having to undergo surgery for a hand injury.

Connacht coach Andy Friend said it was for the good of the game that prop Paddy McAllister had his citing for a dangerous tackle on Marcell Coetzee thrown out.

Connacht coach Andy Friend said the precision which saw them conjure up a last-gasp winner against Gloucester last week is the standard they aspire to.

Connacht coach Andy Friend has told Jack Carty not to panic over his surprise omission from the Irish squad and he’s confident the 27-year old can play his way back on to the international stage.

Connacht’s survival hopes in the Heineken Champions Cup may depend on a superb home record which has seen them lose just one of 14 games at the Sportsground in Europe in the past five years.

Conor Fitzgerald says he is eager to repay the faith that Andy Friend has shown in him as Connacht seek a return to winning ways against Gloucester in the Heineken Champions Cup (Saturday, 12.45pm, Sportsgrounds).

A knee ligament injury means Connacht will have to plan without their player of the year Colby Fianga’a for this weekend’s Champions Cup clash with Gloucester and next week’s inter-pro derby against Munster.

Andy Friend’s Connacht can knock down another barrier in Gloucester tomorrow and in the process take a big step towards a new milestone as they continue to grow impressively under the Australian.

Friend, who coached Harlequins from 2005-08, said his players fell for the ruse when Gloucester’s lineout and scrum tactics were apparently left on a whiteboard for them to see the day before a game at Kingsholm.

Brendan O’Brien Connacht coach Andy Friend has sounded a highly encouraging note on Bundee Aki’s contract situation.

It’s amazing how quickly something can turn for a player and when Conor Fitzgerald was let go from the Munster academy 18 months ago the last thing on his mind would have been lighting up the home of Toulouse with an awesome display in the Heineken Champions Cup.

Connacht coach Andy Friend has warned his side can’t afford to get into an “arm wrestle” against Montpellier in their return to the Heineken Champions Cup this weekend.

Connacht coach Andy Friend is hopeful of Bundee Aki committing his future at the Sportsground as he continues to build his squad.

Andy Friend has knocked down a few barriers since arriving in Galway 15 months ago, and this evening (kick-off 7.35pm) hopes to win in Wales for the first time since he took charge of Connacht.

Jack Carty was on holiday in Spain two years ago when Joey Carbery injured some ligaments in Ireland’s defeat of the USA in New Jersey.

Rory Best’s ankle injury has cleared up in time to allow him to have the send-off he hoped for, and the Ireland captain suspects he’ll be an emotional wreck when he says goodbye at the Kingspan Stadium tonight

Connacht coach Andy Friend is using today’s clash at Thomond Park to blood more players as they keep an eye on next weekend’s PRO14 quarter-final showdown with Ulster.

A raucous Sportsground welcomed Connacht’s progression into the play-off stages of the PRO14 as their team turned in a bonus point performance in their most important game of the season so far.

Connacht coach Andy Friend has made two changes for tomorrow's crucial Guinness Pro14 clash with Cardiff at the Sportsground.

Connacht got the result, but not the performance they required in this fraught win over Michael Bradley’s Zebre.

Connacht coach Andy Friend said he is relieved they are still in control of their own destiny after escaping from Parma with a 6-5 win in a bruising encounter on Saturday evening.

Connacht Head Coach Andy Friend has made a host of changes to the side that lost to Sale Sharks in the European Challenge Cup Quarter Final last weekend.

Carty’s late score at the end of a move which he started in his own half, saw him become Connacht’s all-time top scorer as he moved ahead of Benetton-bound Ian Keatley in the rankings.

CJ Stander is back in the Munster team for tomorrow's Pro 14 match against Zebre at Thomond Park.

Connacht host Benetton Rugby at the Sportsground this evening hoping for a victory to keep their PRO14 play-off ambitions on track.

Andy Friend believes his players let themselves down after they missed a golden opportunity to move into the PRO14 play-off places by slipping to a narrow defeat against the Cardiff Blues in Wales.

Connacht coach Andy Friend says they must park their European Challenge Cup quarter-final qualification and the call-up of half-a-dozen of his squad for Six Nations duty and concentrate on a crunch PRO14 clash in Cardiff on Saturday.

Head coach Andy Friend says he has no fears about Connacht being turned into a development province after it emerged Cian Kelleher is returning to Leinster after three seasons at the Sportsground.

Beating Leinster may have been one hell of a way to end 2018 but Munster have to start the new year with equally pressing obstacles to clear, beginning tonight against Connacht.

Johnny Sexton may be Ireland’s best place kicker, but the statistics suggest Connacht out-half Jack Carty is leading the chasing pack when it comes to success from the tee.

Connacht have only managed to do the double over an Irish province on one occasion, but victory at the Sportsground this evening (7.35pm) against Ulster would help soften the blow of not putting Leinster away last weekend.

Connacht have been boosted by the return of Bundee Aki to training ahead of Saturday’s inter-pro clash with Leinster at the RDS.

Andy Friend is hoping his first pre-season as Connacht head coach has brought the clarity to his players he feels is the key to a successful PRO14 campaign.

Fainga’a will reunite with his former coach Andy Friend at the Sportsground.

If the words of praise from Rugby Australia which greeted Andy Friend’s departure as their men’s sevens head coach ring true during his next venture as Connacht boss, then the Westerners really will have made a serious appointment.

Friend, who was most recently coach of the Australian Sevens team, will arrive at the Sportsground in late June to oversee pre-season training.

Liverpool bounced back to winning ways in the Premier League and maintained their Champions League challenge with a 3-0 win at Huddersfield.

A convicted paedophile who used a social media application to lure a nine-year-old girl into posting a sexual video of herself online has been jailed for four years in England.

Liverpool 3 Middlesbrough 0: When the two minutes of injury-time were up, Jurgen Klopp stood slowly, grinned, hugged every man on the Liverpool bench, and then went and casually but earnestly shook the hand of Steve Agnew, the Middlesbrough caretaker manager.

If there was any tension remaining in the title race — and let’s be honest there wasn’t a lot — Chelsea’s comfortable victory over Middlesbrough has seen it totally evaporate and opened up an opportunity for Antonio Conte’s side to be crowned champions at West Brom on Friday before rivals Tottenham even kick a ball again.