NEWPORT Gwent Dragons are braced for a Connacht side on the rise this evening after the Guinness PRO12 champions mirrored Leicester City by failing to live up to their sporting miracle at the start of the season.

Pat Lam’s men upset the odds in 2015/16 by stunning Leinster to lift the PRO12 trophy at Murrayfield but have found things tougher this time.

They started round 15 in eighth place and rather than having another title tilt they are instead scrambling to qualify for next season’s European Champions Cup.

Claudio Ranieri’s Foxes are enduring a similar struggle to back up their sporting sensation and are embroiled in a Premier League relegation scrap.

However, Dragons backs coach Shaun Connor says the situation is different in the west of Ireland and knows that they face a big challenge at the Sportsground tonight (kick-off 7.35pm).

“It’s a little bit like Leicester in football but Connacht have had a lot of injuries and I don’t think it’s too much to do with sides working them out,” said Connor. “They’ve got players back recently and are starting to hit a bit of form.”

The Dragons are back in Ireland a week after being beaten 45-17 by Munster and Connor expects the champions to be as big a test as the league leaders.

“Munster kick the game more than any team in the league, Connacht kick the ball the least,” said the former fly-half.

“We played them at home and the average passes per game is something like 150 but they passed the ball 280 times.

“We are expecting our defence to be tested and we know that if we kick loosely to them then they will counter-attack, so have to first of all make sure our kicking is accurate and then that our line chase is really good.

“They’ve got quality across the board. It’s probably more of a test than Munster because you constantly have numbers running at you.

“They keep ball in hand, use forwards in midfield not just as carriers but getting the ball through their hands.

“Our defence will have to be on top form for us to get anything out of the game. We have to be alert.”

The Dragons are hunting a first away win of the campaign and haven’t won in Galway since the first season of regional rugby.

To record a morale-boosting victory they will have to conquer the notoriously testing conditions as well as strong hosts.

Connor said: “All I can remember from my playing days is that you play into the wind in the first half and turn around and play into it in the second! I don’t know what they do out there!

“To be fair to Connacht the conditions don’t change the way that they play and they still don’t kick much at home and we are preparing for them to have a crack at us.”