The Irish province edged the reverse encounter 31-24 last month to follow up on an opening-round 22-8 home success over Newcastle Falcons and sit third in Pool A – but since Round 2, they have lost two out of their three United Rugby Championship matches.

Brive are eighth in the pool having also lost 41-0 at Cardiff Rugby in Round 1. However, they have enjoyed strong domestic form since their defeat to Connacht, winning all three of their TOP 14 matches.

The match kicks off at 17:30 (UK & Irish time) at The Sportsground, Galway, and can be watched live on epcrugby.tv or FloRugby.

👑 Turnover King 👑@ConnachtRugby’s Shamus Hurley-Langton won a round-high 3️⃣ turnovers against CA Brive last time out 💪#ChallengeCupRugby pic.twitter.com/MZuAdxGwV9

— EPCR Challenge Cup (@ChallengeCup_) January 11, 2023

Key quote:

Connacht wing Byron Ralston: “We’re just looking to play the Connacht brand of rugby so whatever Brive bring, we’ll be ready. We want to move the ball and play fast so let Brive work on us, and we’ll do our bit around them but the main thing for us is playing our type of game.”

Connacht Rugby

• Connacht have had the second-most number of rucks which have lasted less than a second (13) and between a second and two seconds (48). In the opposition 22, they have had more rucks than any other team which have lasted between three and five seconds.
• Shamus Hurley-Langton won three turnovers in Round 2, a round high, also making 15 tackles and missing none.
• Connacht have made 22 entries into the 22, the second-most in the competition, two behind RC Toulon.

CA Brive

• Brive have conceded three yellow cards in the tournament so far – the most out of any team. They have also conceded the most penalties (31).
• Renger van Eerton has not missed a tackle, but has also made 13 ineffective tackle contacts, the most of any player. He has, however, stolen three opposition lineouts.