Updated at 23.35
CONNACHT COACH PAT Lam admitted his side’s first-half performance against Scarlets last night was not good enough, but praised his men for ultimately earning a 14-8 victory.
Connacht found themselves 8-0 down, before a fantastic second-half Matt Healy try inspired the fightback.
“We had a clear plan at half-time of what we wanted to do,” Lam told TG4. “One of the key things that’s driven us so far is the work done off the ball, but we weren’t working hard enough, so we didn’t create any opportunities and our carries weren’t strong enough.
Asked what specifically prompted their improvement in the second period, Lam added:
“I think we got some momentum, based on better carries. We tried to play in front of them — in these sort of conditions, you have to get in behind them, but also [you need to] carry a lot more directly. Once we did that, we could build momentum.
He also reserved praise for Healy, after the winger’s superb individual try proved the difference between the sides, while expressing enthusiasm about the province’s upcoming “massive” fixtures.
“Matt’s got some serious wheels and he’s been threatening to do that. You’ve got to have that variation. A lot of those opportunities were open and we took one.
Meanwhile, fullback Mils Muliaina echoed his coach’s sentiments following the win.
“The lads composed themselves in the second half and we got there in the end, which was pretty pleasing.
“Our scrum was solid at times, our lineout struggled, but in particular in the second half, we got things back to normal again.”
The 34-year-old former New Zealand international also expressed satisfaction at featuring for 76 minutes of the game.
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“These are the games where you want to perform. It’s a particularly tight table after the top four, and it’s these games that you have to win,” he added.
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