The Sunday showdown at Rodney Parade will give the Irish province the chance to get back on track after their cruel exit from the Celtic Cup in last weekend’s single-point semi-final defeat at the hands of Edinburgh in Galway.
“There are lots of comparisons that can be made between the Gwent Dragons and Connacht at the moment as we are both fighting to survive,” said Marinos.
“Their defeat at the hands of Edinburgh is only going to make them even more determined when they come to play us and we know we’re going to have a real fight on our hands to maintain our unbeaten record at home.”
Connacht destroyed the Neath-Swansea Ospreys on their last visit to Wales and will be hoping to repeat their 16-14 triumph of two seasons ago when they last visited Rodney Parade to play Newport.
“The Celtic Cup semi-final against Edinburgh was definitely one of those games that got away from us and we really could have reached the final,” said Connacht spokesman John Fallon.
“But we’re still lying third in the Celtic League and everyone realises we have to get back on track against the Gwent Dragons. It will be a bit of a new experience for many of the players playing on a Sunday, but we’ve no real injury worries and everyone is looking forward to getting back into action again.”
Meanwhile Connacht coach Michael Bradley continues the rotation policy which sees Connacht currently lie third in the Celtic League table with five wins from eight games and within four points of leaders Ulster.
Two of the changes are up front where Dan McFarland comes in at loosehead prop for the injured Ray Hogan, while in the back row Tom Carter starts at openside, with Paul Neville moving to blindside.
Wayne Munn comes in on the left-wing in a reshuffled backline which sees David Hewitt start at fly-half and Matt Mostyn switching to full-back.
Dragons: S Tuipulotu; N Brew, H Luscombe, S Winn, B Breeze; C Warlow, G Baber; A Black, S Jones, C Anthony, I Gough, P Sidoli, J Ringer, R Oakley, J Forster (capt).
Replacements: P Young, R Snow, M Owen, R Beattie, R Jones, L Jarvis, G Arasa.
Connacht: Matt Mostyn; Conor McPhillips, Darren Yapp, Mark McHugh, Wayne Munn; David Hewitt; Mike Walls; Dan McFarland, Bernard Jackman (capt), Adrian Clarke, Damian Browne, Andrew Farley, Paul Neville, Tom Carter, John O¹Sullivan.
Replacements: John Fogarty,. Fabien Boiroux, Mike McCarthy, Matt Lacey, Conor O’Loughlin, Eric Elwood, Ted Robinson.
Referee: Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)
