If Munster aren't careful there's a real danger they are going to end up with a home run in the United Rugby Championship play-offs.
The defending champions have won their last six league games and have moved to the lofty position of third.
It stands in stark contrast to last season's run-in when they famously became road warriors of some renown on their way to ultimate glory in the competition.
Again, this season, their strike rate away from home, particularly in South Africa for the last two rounds where they picked up 10 points, has gotten them to where they are.
Thomond Park is far from the fortress it once was.
They have beaten Sharks, Stormers and Cardiff at the Limerick venue with the opening home game of the season against the visitors from Durban the only victory by more than a score.
A second-string Bayonne outfit almost pulled off a shock win with honours ending even in the Champions Cup, while 14-man Northampton Saints deservedly took the spoils.
The two-time Heineken Cup champions, meanwhile, picked up three comprehensive wins when relocated to Cork for matches against Dragons, Glasgow and Zebre.
Add in the Christmas derby defeat, 9-3, to Leinster back in December and the message that Connacht boss Pete Wilkins will have hammered home to his charges this week is that the ground itself, for today's 5.15pm kick-off, should hold no fear.
The threats, as Connacht chase a play-off place from seventh position with three rounds left, are elsewhere.
RG Snyman and Tadhg Beirne continue in the second row in a partnership that - if the circumstances were different - would be showing plenty of signs of promise.
As it is, the double World Cup winner will forge his path in blue next season.
The pair can do serious damage today and had pneumonia not kept the South African (below) out of their Champions Cup Round of 16, last weekend may well have seen a reprise of the 2009 Croke Park clash.
Injuries have restricted Snyman's involvement over the last four years and bizarrely enough, this game will be just his second ever Interpro, the first being the occasion he suffered his first ACL injury against Leinster in 2020. The Springbok will also be making his first start at Thomond Park.
Victory would also mark Munster's first success in five derbies this season, a losing record that includes Connacht's 22-9 win in Galway over the New Year.
"It'd be nice to play in front of our fans, get a few home games in play-offs, that’s the goal," said Munster and Ireland wing Calvin Nash this week.
But the Westerners have themselves little to boast about when it comes to hitting provincial rivals hard on the road.
The play-off victory over Ulster in Belfast in last season's quarter-final was their only success away to an Irish province since May of 2021.
That win came against today's opponents in a behind-closed-doors Rainbow Cup tie in Thomond Park, and you have to go back to 2015 for their last victory here prior to that.
Ireland winger Mack Hansen (above) had been pencilled in for his comeback in this game and Connacht could have done with the Canberra native, who picked up the shoulder injury against Munster in January.
"We're not going to take any risks for [Mack's] sake, but also for Ireland’s as well," said Wilkins.
"It’s a shame he’s not there for this week but I hope we’ll see him at some point.
"There’s not been a major setback, it’s really just him ticking those final boxes in terms of returning to contact."
They lost JJ Hanrahan to a serious knee injury in the win over Dragons two weeks ago, while Cian Prendergast and Denis Buckley are also absent.
Jack Carty has timed his return from a hamstring injury perfectly and slots in at out-half as Connacht look to add a fourth away victory of the season to the scalps of Sharks, Cardiff and Dragons.
The race for the play-offs hasn't been as intense in years and Sharks run to the Challenge Cup final also narrows the European target for the chasing pack.
It's a question of which side takes better to the Thomond task today.
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