Smiles all round from happy Lam

It was one of the biggest wins in Heineken Cup history and one of the biggest shocks of the sporting year.

So when Connacht coach Pat Lam emerged from the Stade Ernest Wallon dressing-room, with a smile beaming from ear to ear, and talks of a possible place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, you know you’ve witnessed something very special.

Now within a point of top spot in Pool 3 – held by Toulouse and Saracens – with three games, two of them at home, to play the mood in the Connacht camp is boisterous.

“We had a lot of belief coming to this game,” Lam said. “Although we are at the bottom of the table this year, every single game we played we could have won. We have a team with no superstars, we missed so many chances throughout the season, but we still came here confident. We just had to make sure that everyone did their job.

Last week against Edinburgh we should have won comfortably, but they scored three tries in the last five minutes.

“At the time it hurt, but it might be the best thing that could have happened to us. We had a look at our shape and it was badly wrong, we spent a lot of time at the start of the week getting back to our defensive shape.

“We’re alive, and now we have to go and do the same in our own backyard.

“This will be a big effort, because we’ll face a hurting Toulouse team.

“They’re going to be written off and told how bad they are. They’ll come to us fired up.”