Lam hails 'massive' win against Zebre

Connacht coach Pat Lam said there was a fantastic feeling in his squad after his side's Heineken Cup win over Zebre at the weekend.

He put the squad through their paces today at an indoor session in Galway in preparation for Saturday’s Rabo Direct Pro 12 clash with Leinster at the RDS.

The weekend’s win in Italy was on the back of a disappointing loss to Saracens when the Western side had them on the ropes in the Sportsground in the dying moments before the concession of a penalty.

“The mood was very good, right across the board,” he said.

“We are one team and not only were we disappointed from the Saracens game then we had the Eagles side, we were disappointed with their performance there, so to come away with the win in Italy was massive for the whole group.”

“We talked about it today, was it an accident that we worked well as a group? No, so we need to work on that day by day to get better.”

For a squad the size of the Connacht one, there was no better week to give themselves a boost than the one gone for their second inter provincial derby of the season, this time against the current league champions Leinster.

“It’s the perfect game for us, it’s a big challenge as Leinster are one of the best teams in Europe, full of Irish internationals and plenty of guys from overseas so it’s a mighty challenge,” he said.

“Connacht haven’t beaten Leinster in Dublin since 2002 and have never won in the RDS.

“As I said, it’s a mighty challenge and one we are looking forward to.”

On the Leinster front, Brian O’Driscoll is still being assessed and faces the possibility of missing yet another game, but Lam isn’t looking into that too much.

“The thing about Leinster is if they lose Brian there is plenty of good cover, that’s what we face and we know that,” he said.

“From day one when I arrived here I looked at their squad and looked at ours and just judge on international caps alone there is a big difference, they are playing at home and we know history is against us.

“We know that we have to go and prepare properly and make sure that we tick the boxes.

“What we did in Europe is all based on what we have been working towards and everyone is getting more and more comfortable about what we have to do.”