Updated: Saturday, 20 Sep 2014 16:10 | Comments
Connacht head coach Pat Lam has heaped praised on his team's character following their impressive 10-9 victory over Leinster in the Guinness Pro12 at the Sportsground on Friday night.
"This is three weeks in a row we've had to dig deep and the real character has shown," said Lam.
"We send out all the players to Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Mayo and Galway, because I said when we get into these sort of situations, we've got to know who we're playing for, and the reason we do so much together as a team is because you want to look over at your team-mate and know you'll do everything for him.
"Three weeks in a row we've shown tremendous courage."
Lam attributed Leinster overturning a 9-3 half-time defecit to calm under pressure and crucially a quicker line speed and trust in defence.
He said: "It's about calm. If you remain calm you get real clarity on what you need to do. And we knew we were getting on the wrong side of the penalty count and we had to just make a few adjustments up front.
"Our defence needed quicker line speed because when they [Leinster] get going we know what they're like. So, we needed to get off our line quicker, hold our shape and really trust that we don't have to have three guys taking one. Just trust the shape so we don't get caught short. It certainly came home."
The Samoan coach also pinpointed belief as key in the Westerners ensuring they held out under sustained offensive pressure from Leinster in the final quarter of the tie, saying: "I'm a big believer in belief, I'm a big believer in courage.
"Belief is based on what you do off the field and the work we do as a team and one of the things I really stressed before this game was belief. Belief that we can win. I said, 'Don't just say you can win. Believe it.'"
Kieran Marmion's solo try in the second half proved the difference between the sides come 80 minutes and Lam highlighted how impressive the scrum-half was in the tie, saying: "The guy's class. That's one of the things I said at half-time, that we need to attack the fringes because they were coming up fast and I told him to go fishing. And he went fishing and he got a nice bite.
"He's a class player and he's shown what he can do. He's shown he can bring something different and he's a courageous young man."
In terms of what lies next for Connact, Glasgow Warriors will be another massive challenge for the Westerners and Lam and Co will get back to work on Sunday to prepare for that battle at Scotstoun Stadium next Friday.
"After all the celebrations, was it perfect? No. Is there work we can do? Yes," he said.
"So let's get back to it on Sunday and do our review. We've just beaten the team that's number one, now we go up against the team that's number two, and arguably the form team of the competition at the moment – Glasgow, away.
"We've got a massive battle again. We've got to see how the bodies are. We've got a few knocks, we've got a smaller squad, so the recovery over the next 24-48 hours is crucial for us."
Twitter: @TPeavoy
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