GLasgow Warriors' chance of bringing a semi-final to Scotland for the first time may be in the hands of others but they have no shortage of incentive in Galway tonight.

Barring surprise defeats for Ulster or Leinster in the final round of RaboDirect PRO12 league matches, they know they will be heading for Dublin next weekend and, having failed to win in Ireland in four previous visits this season, this would be a good time to remind themselves of how to do it.

All the more so because they have not won away from Scotstoun for 11 weeks since their record 60-point thrashing of Newport Gwent Dragons and history suggests momentum can be very important going into play-off games.

On the face of it, meeting Connacht would traditionally be considered as representing the best opportunity of achieving taht elusive away win given they are, as always, the lowest placed of the Irish provinces in the league. However, Glasgow have won at all three of the others more recently than they have in Galway, so they know the task in hand.

Yet, such is Gregor Townsend's confidence in the depth of his squad that he believes he can get the win required in spite of making nine changes to the side that started the win over the Ospreys which secured their semi-final place a fortnight ago. He has also chosen to leave both the players selected this week for the British & Irish Lions tour – Stuart Hogg and Sean Maitland – on the bench, but both of those replacing them are international contenders.

Then again, as pointed out by Peter Murchie, who comes in for Hogg at full-back, that description could apply to more than half of Glasgow's huge squad. "There's probably about 30 guys, maybe even more than 30, who will be expecting to be in the 23-man squad so there's going to be a lot of disappointed boys," he observed ahead of his first start since the narrow defeat at Leinster last month. "So, especially for the guys who haven't played for a few weeks, this is a big opportunity to put in a good performance and make life difficult for the coaches. That's what they want and that's all you can do personally as well; try to play well, try to win . . . make it more difficult to change a winning team."

The competition for places is demonstrated by the extent of Murchie's disappointment at having enjoyed little action recently, regardless of the fact that his main rival is heading off with the Lions.

"I'm delighted for Hoggy that he's been chosen. It's obviously a massive honour and he deserves it, but the last game I played for Glasgow I was pretty happy with the way I played and I was pretty disappointed to not be playing the next match.

"It's been a few weeks now but I can't wait to play again," he said, joking that he was only getting in because Hogg didn't fancy the windy conditions that are standard in Galway.

Murchie has, however, made three visits to Connacht in the past and while he has only been on the losing side once, he has never experienced victory there, draws having sandwiched that heavy defeat.

He consequently knows how tough it will be and also acknowledged that there is an extra complicating factor as Dan Parks, who set tournament records while with Glasgow, makes his first appearance against his old club since leaving two years ago.

"They love putting up a high ball, so you would expect an aerial bombardment, but I like that," said the full-back. "I would imagine Dan Parks knows the dimensions of the pitch and will try to play the corners, so it will be a good challenge. Knowing his type of character he'll be absolutely desperate to play against Glasgow I'm sure [and] it's a tough place to go.

"Last year we drew with the last kick of the game so we've got closer but we also got a thumping two years ago. They're a very proud bunch of guys, all massive, the crowd gets behind them and it's difficult to play there because they play with a lot of emotion. They seem like a very tight squad. They never give up. I don't think anyone puts a lot of points on them.

"Mostly it's about us, though. We look a little bit at the opposition and pick out weaknesses that we see in them and we pick out strengths that we need to deal with, but first and foremost it's about us."

Murchie accepted, too, that they had to get their last road trip – they were well beaten at Llanelli– out of their system but he believes they can produce the performance that could still make history and bring that first semi-final to Glasgow.

"The last away performance was unacceptable, I think everyone would admit that, but yes we want momentum," he said. "I wasn't involved in the Scarlets game but I'm pretty sure that was just one we've got to forget about and move on. I don't think there's been any of those performance this season to be honest, so I think that was just a bit of a blip, but it's important that we win going into the semi and I don't think we should be giving up the ghost in terms of a home semi. You just don't know what's going to happen."