Friend's delight as underdogs Connacht march on

The campervan can stay in the garage for another week, at least.

Andy Friend and his wife Kerri's trip around Europe, before they set sail for Australia, will have to wait and the most pressing travel arrangements the Connacht boss has is getting "27 or 28" fit men to make the long trip to South Africa on Tuesday to take on defending URC champions Stormers.

Three weeks ago, the Westerners signed off from the Sportsground with a comprehensive win over Cardiff that secured their playoff place and it was 'win or go home' on Friday night.

Arriving in Belfast as 10-point underdogs, Friend, who is at pains to point out the homework done by head coach Pete Wilkins and his assistants, came away with a memorable win, incredibly his third success away to Ulster after Connacht had gone 58 years without one.

No matter what happens in Cape Town on Saturday, the 54-year-old departs with Heineken Champions Cup qualification secured and the feeling of a job well done. Five years well spent.

"It'll get a fair workout come June but I'm really stoked to not have to be jumping in that early," says Friend of his Euro trip, which he hopes won’t begin until after the final on 27 May.

But back to Belfast. Ulster had never lost a knockout game at the Kingspan Stadium and this time last year, coasted past a desperate Munster effort to book a semi-final place.

Dan McFarland's side bid farewell to a host of players and had arranged an autograph and selfie session with the fans for after the game. They were supposed to win and earn a home semi-final.

Connacht didn’t read the script.

They operate with the smallest budget of all the Irish provinces and finished 18 points behind their opponents in the regular season.

No matter.

"We don’t zone in on that," says