Murray Kinsella reports from the Sportsground
PAT LAM SAYS he took encouragement from an improved Connacht performance, despite a 32-11 loss to the Ospreys at the Sportsground.
For the second weekend in a row, the western province gave up a bonus point in defeat, meaning their Pro12 title defence is off to a poor start.
“The first thing, as I said to the boys in the changing room, is there’s no doubt there’s disappointment with the outcome,” said Lam post-match in Galway.
“But I’m pleased that we were better than we were last weekend, particularly things like off the ball, attitude, getting off the ground, all that sort of stuff. We were poor out of the blocks at half time last weekend and we played good rugby after half time this week.
The score blew out, which wasn’t a reflection of the game but it’s massive learnings again. The main thing I’m pleased about is that we were certainly better than we were last week.”
Connacht led 11-10 in the second half following a superb Eoin McKeon try, but will likely rue their missed opportunities earlier in the contest.
Just before half time came a period of pressure on the Ospreys’ tryline that was not converted into points, although the Welsh side did appear to deal with Connacht’s maul illegally. A similar spell of pressure immediately after Tyler Ardron’s yellow card also yielded nothing.
“[The maul] came down a few times, it was against us, but we have to live with that,” said Lam.
“At 10-6, they had a forward in the bin and we went for the corner, which was the right call. But we knocked the ball on so the execution wasn’t as good as the decision and we didn’t execute there. There were certainly a few of those mauls we didn’t get the outcome we wanted.
We persisted and got a good try. At 11-10, we needed to score again obviously and little moments and lapses went against us. Similar to last weekend, a good side punished us quickly.”
Connacht now turn their attention towards a trip to Italy to face Zebre, who had an 11-6 defeat away to the Dragons this weekend.
“Everything’s a must-win,” said Lam. ”We know what we’re in for – after the strong performance they had against the Dragons, they’ll be tough. If we don’t prepare properly and improve further, it’s going to be a hard day.”
