Pat Lam has revealed that the death of Anthony Foley focused his mind on his responsibilities to his family and contributed to his decision to leave Connacht for Bristol next season.
The Connacht head coach will step down from his current role at the end of the season to take charge of Aviva Premiership side Bristol.
Speaking in Galway this afternoon, he said the future for his family was key to his decision.
Lam said that when he travelled to Killaloe for the removal of former Munster coach Foley, he began to think about how he could best safeguard the future of his wife and five children.
The New Zealander revealed that he initially rejected an approach from Bristol earlier this autumn, as he and his family were very happy and settled in Galway. But when a fresh offer was made two weeks ago, he reconsidered.
He said the aims and vision outlined by Bristol appealed to him and that he wanted to help the team reach those goals.
"In my whole process I look at my rugby career because I am responsible for my family too," he explained. "Are you okay to go to Galway? Are you okay to go to Newcastle? And when I came back from Bristol, we put it all on the table and we said: 'No. We are happy here, we love it here'.
"Two weeks ago, Bristol put an offer down and it was quite significant. They pretty much said: 'Can you come here and do what you did in Connacht?'
"That completely flipped my decision from rugby to family. The reason why it did is that when I went down to Killaloe to see my good friend Axel, who was in that coaching environment..."
Lam insisted that the decision was not about money and that it gave him a fresh target in life and would also allow him to provide the best future for his family. He did however add that it was important for him to be able to secure the future for his wife and five children "if my number comes up".
The Connacht head coach had one piece of good news for the team's supporters when he claimed that he was not planning on poaching players to bring to Bristol.
When he was asked if he intended to bring any Connacht players with him to England, he simply replied "No".
Lam also revealed that there are no problems within the squad following the announcement of his decision to leave.
Bundee Aki expressed his anger with Lam's decision of twitter, simply tweeting "Feeling pissed" when the news broke.
Aki signed a new contract with Connacht in October and is believed to have spurned interest from Munster and Bordeaux to commit his future to the Westerners, but Lam insists that there are no hard feelings.
"Like all the players, everyone was shocked but I have spoken to Bundee and he gave me a pretty big bear hug and we shed a few tears," he said.
