Connacht head coach Pat Lam is looking forward to a short break having watched his team move back to the top of the Pro12 League.
Saturday’s impressive 30-17 win over Scarlets at the Sportsground moved them up to second place, behind the team they beat at the weekend only on games lost.
The Westerners have played 16 weeks on the bounce and following a productive first phase to the season Lam and his players will enjoy a rare weekend off.
“We’re really pleased with the boys,” said the Kiwi after the win in Galway.
“To get through 16 weeks has been a hard slog and I said that it’s tough on the teams with smaller squads.
“We’re the team with the smallest squad so what we’ve done and to be in second place on games lost and through in the Challenge Cup is a great effort.
“I’m going to head to Spain for a while with the family because we missed all over Christmas.
“I’m starting to blend in with everyone here; I need to get some colour on the skin again!
“It’s great to get a break, come back and then four big games before the next break.”
Connacht’s Pro12 form had been shaky, though this result gets them back on track and goes alongside their progress to the quarter-final of the European Challenge Cup.
They led Scarlets 13-0 at the break, having built a great platform in the forwards, but gave away ten cheap and unanswered points straight after half-time.
Instead of crumbling, they fought back and earned their bonus-point win.
“At half-time had a really good chat, nice and calm, about what we needed to do and then enforced errors,” explained Lam.
“High tackle, three points, didn’t control the breakdown, try so ten points.
“The thing about this team is we have been through so much adversity we don’t get rattled.
“At stage we got together behind the sticks and said ‘right, let’s get back in to our system’ and we got back into the game.”
“I’m starting to blend in with everyone here; I need to get some colour on the skin again!" - Pat Lam
Connacht were also able to deny Scarlets a losing bonus point, even though they finished the game with 14 men following Dave Heffernan’s yellow card for repeated infringements.
This meant that they were able to move level on 40 points with the Welsh region at the summit of the table.
