Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LAM: NO SCAR TISSUE
Pat claims abject loss will not ruin happy memories
PAT LAM says he has too many good memories from the Sportsground for this abject display to ruin his time in Galway. But the Kiwi knows his side have no chance of qualifying for the Champions Cup if they don’t shape up quickly. Connacht were destroyed by a fluid Scarlets side on Saturday, as their preparations for the play-offs hit another snag. Already without the suspended Bundee Aki for next week’s trip to Thomond Park and their play-off – likely to be against the seventh-placed Premiership side – Lam now has another disastrous display to dissect. It was a very poor defensive effort from the home side, and their only reply was Craig Ronaldson’s 58th minute try, which arrived at a time when Scarlets had taken their foot off the gas. Even then Scarlets managed a late fifth through replacement DTH van der Merwe, but Lam knows Connacht need to find their form fast to avoid the Challenge Cup. “For a variety of reasons, we are just not in the best form collectively. We have flashes and moments but we are not playing the best we can,” he said. “The reason we can be very disappointed with that performance is because we have shown many times during my time here how well we have played and the standards we have set. “Once it’s there we are always trying to achieve that. When we don’t and we drop right off it, it’s disappointing.” Scarlets now face either Munster or Leinster in the semi-final – a win against Ospreys next week will send them to Thomond Park – but they made short work of Connacht. Johnny Mcnicholl, Steff Evans (twice) and Liam Williams ran in tries in the opening half-hour, and the result was never in doubt from then on. “There are too many better memories that I have that will over-ride that performance. But it’s not about me, it’s about the team and Connacht Rugby getting into Champions Cup. If we don’t I will be disappointed. It will be a disappointing season. That’s always our minimum. “(Finishing eighth) gives you the advantage of the home final. But you have got to go to England and win in England which is just as tough as going to France. But the more beneficial is the fact that you can get a home final but you still have got to do the business. “If we play like we did tonight we won’t be making a final, especially the way we played in the first-half.”