Shocked Connacht must now prepare for life after Pat Lam

That Pat Lam will be leaving Connacht at the end of this season was not so much the surprise yesterday as the awkward timing of the announcement.

As preparations for Sunday’s Champions Cup trip to English Premiership side Wasps go, there will have been easier starts to a week’s training than yesterday’s requirement to process some pretty devastating news for the province.

You can be sure the urgency to get the news out will have come from Bristol, the club where Lam will be plying his trade from next season having brought unprecedented success to Connacht in what will have been a fourth term as head coach in Galway.