Connacht 'a work in progress' as injuries hit hard

Connacht coach Pat Lam says his side are a work in progress.

The Western province have only one win to their tally so far this season and have lost twice at home to Ulster and Ospreys.

This week they are travelling to Italy for a clash against an ever improving Treviso side who already have an Irish scalp this season having beaten Munster at home two weeks ago.

“It is a work in progress – We saw Leinster when Joe Schmidt went there and they lost four games in a row, were not out there to lose but it is a work in progress.” Said Lam

He continued: “There are things that we are doing well and things we showed today that we have been working on which gives us an opportunity to score points and then there’s still things like mistakes we make and we ask are they fixable, and they are but we have got to continue to keep building.”

Lam's injury list is getting bigger by the week which considering he is trying to build on a work in progress is a particular strain for him.

Matt Healy took a knock to his knee, the province believe there will be a short turnaround there and they will be monitoring more during the week but he hasn’t been ruled out of the trip to Italy.

Craig Ronaldson has a quad problem, Jake Heenan is nursing a cheekbone injury while Michael Swift is bidding to recover from a knee injury, Lam reckons all are 50-50 at this stage to make the trip.

“They are starting to pile up on the back of the injury to Jason Harris Wright, adding to Miah Nikora – There are a few front liners taking the knocks, which is a concern.” Lam said.

Connacht beat an Italian side already this season, seeing off Zebre at home on the opening night, but Lam is well aware of the battle his side face having seen how dramatically Munster went down there a few weeks back.

“The progress they have made is great, they finished top six in the table last season and we are playing them away, we know they are a physical team and we saw what happened with Munster so we understand that.”

Lam faces somewhat a disruption to his preparation for the trip to Italy as he has to travel to Dublin tomorrow for the launch of the Heineken Cup, the squad themselves then travel to Dublin on Wednesday to fly out so the short turn-around from the Ospreys game is a factor.

Lam said: “The biggest factor for us is to make sure we get a fit squad together so there are so many challenges there but that is for us to overcome and prepare well.”

Lam was left frustrated by the small errors that saw his side go down heavy to Ospreys at the weekend and he says it’s crucial they correct those things and bag a win or two before the start of the Heineken Cup on October 11 against Saracens.

“There are structures we have and every time we look at something we think do we have a structure that prevents something from happening we know we do, all we can do is put in the structures and then everyone knows what they have to do and it’s about delivering and that’s what we are about as a team, we said we have to work for everything, if players do their job things happen, if they don’t, they don’t happen.”