Recent Ireland debutant Dan Tuohy is set to make his seasonal bow for Ulster, while Adam D'Arcy, Willie Faloon and Nigel Brady have also been added to the 23-man squad that was on duty for the win over Edinburgh at Ravenhill.

South African international Ruan Pienaar, who touched down in Belfast last week, is absent from the panel, and likely to make his provincial debut against Glasgow Warriors on Friday week.

Commenting on the Connacht match, Ulster assistant coach Neil Doak said: "Connacht have got of to a good start and they put the Dragons to the sword in the first week. Any team going to Galway face a difficult scenario.

"It will be very physical and we'll have to front up, defensively we have to make sure we don't give them a lot of yards because if they get their tails up they can do a bit of damage."

Reflecting on Ulster's three-try defeat of Edinburgh, he added: "The pleasing thing is that we were playing some rugby. (Against Edinburgh) we showed improvement on our performance from last week and that is important.

"But we were also disappointed that we didn't take a bonus point win from the game. It was there for us and we really do have to find that ruthless nature within ourselves.

"Three wins from three is an excellent start to the season for us, but it is important we look at those areas which were problematic, improve this week and continue improving week-on-week as we build for Europe."

ULSTER Squad (v Connacht) - Backs (12): Adam D'Arcy, David McIlwaine, Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall, Ian Porter, Paul Emerick, Jamie Smith, Darren Cave, Ian Whitten, Paddy Wallace, Ian Humphreys, Niall O'Connor.

Forwards (16): Tom Court, Paddy McAllister, Bryan Young, Chris Henry, Rory Best, BJ Botha, Andi Kyriacou, Tim Barker, Johann Muller, Ryan Caldwell, Willie Faloon, Nigel Brady, Robbie Diack, Stephen Ferris, Pedrie Wannenburg, Dan Tuohy.