Pat Lam scolded his team for giving him "heart attack moments" in their 30-25 defeat of Ulster at the Sportsground on Friday night, but welcomed a return to old values that kept their Pro12 recovery going.
The champions crawled out of the traps, seemingly suffering an almighty hangover from last season's incredible triumph as they slumped to three losses on the bounce.
Last week's win against Edinburgh stopped the rot, with the victory over a previously unbeaten Ulster giving the Westerners another shot in the arm. Now Lam wants his team to raise the bar again as they prepare for their Champions Cup odyssey.
“I’m nearly 50, I don’t need those heart attack moments!" he told RTÉ Sport.
"We know there’s stuff we’ve got to get better at but again, it was better than last week and we knew we had to be.
“When we’re going well we need to put the foot on the pedal and we didn’t. There was a couple of system errors, a couple of things that didn’t go right... but it was all about whoever had possession in the right areas of the field and put the pressure on.
"To get back-to-back wins is a credit to the mindset and the attitude."
Next up for is a European showdown with French giants Toulouse.
After the long hard road Connacht travelled in the last campaign to earn a seat at the top table, Lam is desperate to savour every moment.
Everything we did last year, the No 1 goal was to get into the Champions Cup
"We need to take it another level up for the Champions Cup," he said. "It’s a great competition. Everything we did last year, the No 1 goal was to get into the Champions Cup.
"We kick it off next week, it’s a big game for us and we can take a lot of confidence from this game.
“Everything we’ve worked on we’ve got better at and that’s what gave me confidence that we would come back.
“What I like is when I look at the stats, everyone’s got tackles, everyone’s got carries. It shows our game is about team and work rate.
“Our defence has got better and better each game and it’s give us a good boost going into our big game next week against Toulouse here, which is going to be massive."
