The Welsh region made the final four of the competition in 2007 and 2015 but comprehensive defeats to ASM Clermont Auvergne (46-29) and Edinburgh (45-16) saw their Challenge Cup hopes end at the semi-final stage.
Their shock 23-21 win at Gloucester in the quarter-final of this year’s competition has raised hopes in South East Wales about the possibility of going all the way to the final at the Grand Stande de Lyon in May. Their preparation has been hampered by the departure of director of rugby Lyn Jones this week – with head coach Kingsley Jones taking the reins.
Dragons coach Jones was critical of his side for playing as individuals rather than as a team in last weekend’s derby defeat to the Blues, as many of his young stars eye places on Wales’ summer tour to New Zealand.
Jones said: “We’ve got a lot of young guys and quite rightly so they want to impress and they want to play for Wales. But the only way this team is going to get lots of players in the Welsh squad is by playing well as a team.
“The team needs to be getting the right results and if we get a number of wins on the trot then everyone will be rewarded and recognised.
“Against the Blues there was a little bit of that (selfishness) coming back in, we didn’t do it against Gloucester and we need to make sure that we don’t do it against Montpellier or we’ll be on the wrong side of the score-line.”
Montpellier are juggling their Challenge Cup campaign with their Top 14 ambitions, where they currently sit in second place seven points behind leaders Clermont.
This is the first time they have reached the semi-final stage having twice been knocked out in the quarter-final. The French giants have looked in ominous form with more first-half tries in this year’s competition than any other side.
Previous Challenge Cup records are also in Montpellier’s favour because of the of the 44 Challenge Cup semi-finals played to date – the matches were over two legs between 2003 and ’05 – there have been only nine away wins including Harlequins’ victory over Munster at Thomond Park in 2011.
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