Pat Lam believes that understanding how to win, instead of hoping, was the key to their first ever away win over Guinness Pro12 powerhouse the Ospreys.
The Westerners were good value for their victory over a strong Ospreys team on Saturday.
Speaking to Hugh Cahill in an interview to be broadcast in full on RTÉ 2fm’s Game On this evening, Lam said: "They put in a lot of work as a team. We’ve never won down there, haven’t beaten them for a long time so it was a great reward for a lot of hard work. Delighted, very pleased for the players."
Connacht are now joint-top of the table after winning four of their opening five fixtures and according to Lam, a relentless focus on process has been the key to that superb start to the season.
He continued: "We did a lot of work in understanding the process of winning, understanding what we need to do. We know our squad is not as big as the others, we have the least internationals of any squad in the competition.
"Everything is done purely around our structures, our systems and playing as a team. A lot of work goes into understanding how we can win rather than hoping we win. If we can apply all of that desire to win to a gameplan and our process, we give ourselves a chance."
"Everything is done purely around our structures, our systems and playing as a team"
And it is the style of the win as much as the result that will attract attention with Connacht controlling the match and seeing off a second-half rally led by star forward Justin Tipuric.
"We review the game on the basis of what we plan to do, and got so much right in our defence which put them under pressure and we were able to apply a lot of pressure with our attack structures and came away with the win."
Listen to the full interview tonight. Game On is on RTÉ 2fm every weekday from 7pm.
