Defence must keep improving says Lam

CONNACHT return to Italy for today’s clash against a Zebre side still looking for its first win of the campaign after their September clash was abandoned due to weather with the half-time score 22-10 in Zebre’s favour.

Pat Lam insists he is confident his team could have won through in the second half, but at that point they were winless after threeand-a-half games and low on confidence.

Since then, victories over Edinburgh, Ulster and Toulouse have boosted the champions’ confidence.

Zebre are the worst team in the Pro12 and have never won a Champions Cup game. Last week, they shipped 82 points away to Wasps, but Lam said: “There is no doubt they have got confidence from that game in September, even though the game wasn’t completed.

“If you look too, they ran Glasgow close too. Glasgow were lucky to win there, Cardiff were lucky to win there.

“We know that any team who goes to Parma. . . they never go through a season where they don’t win a game. They always win a game; it comes down to who is it going to be against.”

Lam added: “Our mindset is around our defence. We know that we can score tries against them. But particularly the last day, we conceded three tries in that half. The year before we scored 50-odd points and we allowed 30 in.

“Our defence from the start of the season to where our defence is now is completely changed. We need to continue to improve that.”

Lam has named 21-yearold flanker Sean O’Brien in the lineup for his first start of the season.