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Armagh are seventh but only five points behind Ulster rivals Hinch, who occupy the last playoff spot.

Chris Parker’s side make a first-ever visit to Tom Clifford Park to face Young Munster who are a place below them, while Adam Craig’s men travel to fifth-placed UCD.

Armagh are hoping the week’s break will help them rediscover their form.

Parker said: “It allowed us just to maybe re-focus and get bodies rested, recovered and ready to go again for a big block before Christmas and just to re-evaluate where we are and what we need to do in this block.

“We are competitive, I think the big thing is we are creating chances and we are butchering them which is disappointing, but at the same time at least we know we are creating them.

“We just need to be a bit more clinical to get over the line. We certainly have been able to go toe to toe with everyone so far and that is something that we can take a lot of encouragement from.

“We know we just need to tidy up some aspects of our game and hopefully we have been able to do that this week through training and we can show it away to Young Munster.”

Young Munster’s ground has earned the mantra of the Killing Fields because of how difficult it is for opposition team, but having already beaten Shannon in Limerick Armagh will travel with confidence.

“Whenever we came up, we looked at places to go, different reasons for wanting to play in certain places,” added Parker.

“Trinity and College Park for it’s location – there has been a lot said about the banter that can happen down in Young Munster and certainly if it is anything like Shannon, it will be a good atmosphere and something the boys will enjoy playing in.

“It is the first time we have ever played them and it is one to look forward to. It’s going to new places, meeting new people and something we can get excited about.

“There is a point between the pair of us, they have just beaten Terenure which will have given them a shot in the arm, Munster play [last night] which will strengthen them with a lot of releases this week.

“We’ll go down and put our best foot forward and certainly try to get a positive result out of it.”

Hinch have won three and drew one of their last four games ahead of their visit to the Dublin students.

Ulster backrow Greg Jones is set to play his first game of the season while prop James French starts.

Ulster duo Aaron Sexton and Ben Carson are included in the back line.

Queen’s will want to get back to winning ways in Division 1B as they host Highfield at the Dub.

Last season’s two Schools’ Cup final captains, Jacob Boyd and Flynn Longstaff, start in the front row.

Recent Ulster debutants Joe Hopes and Lorcan McLoughlin are also in the pack while James Humphreys, Lukas Kenny and Rory Telfer are set to start in the back line.

Meanwhile, Instonians lead the way by four points in Division 2B.

Paul Pritchard’s side have won all six games with bonus points and host struggling Malahide at Shaw’s Bridge.

Pritchard said: “We are happy with where we are at, we got a couple of good home games there which helped us build a bit of momentum and that is the key thing now.

“We want to continue that on in this block now and then the challenge is maintaining that after Christmas.

“The Christmas fixtures can be a bit of a banana skin for teams, so we just want to make sure that firstly we get through this block and then make sure we hit the ground running again in the New Year.

“I really enjoy the set-up of the All Ireland League and that break is sort of needed.

"After a tough physical battle sometimes it gives us a week to focus on the seconds a wee bit if they have a game which happened last week,” he added.

“Some weeks we are able to take a night off which the guys really appreciate. We like the set-up – it is nice that way.

“Our focus is always the next game and not to think too far ahead.

"We’re just looking to get through Malahide, hopefully get the win and then think what is ahead of us after that.”

Malahide have lost four of their six games but Pritchard knows they will come to Belfast with their homework done.

“I have a friend on the Malahide coaching staff and he has been texting me saying he’s seen more of me this season on video than he did when he was at Old Belvedere when I was there, which shows how much teams are watching our videos.

“He has watched every one of our games this season, so we know teams are coming to us and they know what we do, so it is up to us to add to what we do and make sure we do what we’re doing well.

“My focus is that we that we focus heavily on ourselves and we really don’t worry too much about the opposition.

"It is maybe a little bit of confidence in ourselves but that is the best way to look at it,” Pritchard added.

“There is no point trying to change every week to who you play – probably at this level in this league if we can do what we do well and continually improve then we should be very hard to beat.”

Elsewhere, Rainey host Skerries, Dungannon entertain Corinthains (3pm) and Belfast Harlequins visit Sligo (2pm).

In Division 2A Ballymena and Banbridge clash at Eaton Park and Malone welcome Nenagh, while in 2C Clogher Valley are at Galwegians and Bangor host Omagh.