Connacht boss Andy Friend: Leinster not better players, they are better prepared

Last Friday Connacht stepped up to the plate and gave almost as good as they got against Leinster.

Last night at the Aviva, not so much.

The Westerners have been nothing this season if not consistent in their inconsistency.

They'll fly out to South Africa tomorrow for URC games against Lions and Sharks with a "fairly long shot" of reaching the play-offs, according to Andy Friend.

They played six Heineken Champions Cup games this season and won just one, albeit they secured bonus points in three of the pool games they lost and were within a score of Leinster in the first leg but bowed out thanks to a 56-20 defeat yesterday.

Asked if he could pin-point why they are so hit and miss, the Australian said: "Listen, I think if we're really honest with it, it's the way we conduct ourselves on a weekly basis.

"Sometimes we're really good in our prep and sometimes we're really good in the way we review and we challenge each other and what we do and other times we're not, and we know the on-field performance is usually a fair reflection of what's happening off field.

"So that's for us as a collective and certainly for me as the head coach to drive our standards really harder, and that was the message to the players.

"I actually had seen in the last two weeks a greater endeavour to be professional in the way we go about our preparation, so don't lose that because of that loss, we actually have to keep that more.

"My message to the players after last week's game was I seriously don't believe Leinster are better rugby players, they're better prepared in terms of they're better professionals and that's our next big step up, we need to be better professionals.

"At the end of the day that rests with me, I own that so I'll keeping driving that and