The Irish province host the Pool B encounter at The Sportsground, a stadium notorious for its susceptibility to the elements, and given Stade Français’ kicking style, Friend highlighted that a particularly blustery day could either make or break the TOP 14 side’s game plan.

“[We are] two very different sides,” he said. “[They have] a big pack and love their kicking game, so we’ll see what the wind is doing that day.

“If it’s in their face, they may not be able to, but if it’s at their back, I’m sure they’re going to, which means it will be in our face and we’ll have to come in with our special little attacking shapes and see whether we can break the big men down. So, it’s going to be a great challenge.”

The Australian underlined that his team will be more used to such conditions and will be looking to keep the ball in hand to break down the French club.

“We often train in that (wind) and then you become accustomed to the fact that our skill, our handling has just to get better, our lineouts have to get better and our key principles have got to be really dialled in. If we are good at that, we can be successful,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter whether the wind is in our face or at our back, or whether it’s raining or not. If we keep our skill sets up, we can actually handle the ball and we can do very well.”

Sunday’s game will be another Heineken Champions Cup clash between teams characterised by their contrasting styles – something Friend “loves” about the competition.

“There is so much variance in the way different teams play, so they’ll be two very different teams, two very different game styles, but we believe with our style we’ll be able to cause some issues,” he added.

Connacht Rugby head coach Andy Friend feels that the weather conditions could have a significant bearing on his side’s Heineken Champions Cup opener against Stade Français Paris on Sunday.