The Connacht players only discovered on Monday morning that their head coach would be leaving at the end of the season.
Pat Lam had a lot to think about over the weekend. There was a lucrative offer on the table from Bristol and Northampton Saints were dead keen to get him onboard.
Lam has long proclaimed that Connacht Rugby was his family so leaving would be a wrench.
The 48-year-old had signed a three-year deal with Connacht, and the IRFU, last year and was expected to stay in charge, out west, until 2018. All that changed on Monday morning.
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A few factors may well have nudged Lam towards the exit door. Talk about Connacht getting The Sportsground refurbished [with an increased capacity] dithered, Joe Schmidt's new IRFU contract saw Lam without a clear step up from his provincial duties, and a monstrous contract offer from Bristol sealed the deal.
The Irish Times is reporting that Lam will be paid £750,000 per season, which is a significant bump on the IRFU deal he signed in January 2015.
Journalist John Fallon also states that
Lam had an escape clause from his IRFU deal that meant he had to announce his departure before January 1, 2017 in order to leave.
The timing of the announcement could be better. Connacht have back-to-back Champions Cup fixtures against Wasps followed by two interprovincial fixtures in the Guinness PRO12.
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