'It's really important we back that up' - Connacht ready for Stormers after vital Scarlets win

Saturday's win against Scarlets will count for nothing if Connacht don't "back it up" against the Stormers this weekend, according to head coach Andy Friend.

The province ended their run of four successive defeats on Saturday night when they defeated the Scarlets 29-23, climbing back up to eight place in the table.

Defeats to Glasgow and Ulster had seen Connacht slip back to 10th in recent weeks, but Saturday's win, as well as defeats for their rivals has swung the door back open tor Andy Friend's side.

The result lifts them back up to seventh place in the URC table, which as things stand keeps them in the mix for Champions Cup qualification.

The 2016 champions will hope to build some further momentum this Saturday when they welcome the Stormers to the Sportsground for their rescheduled Round 10 fixture, and Friend says it's vital them pick up where they left off in Llanelli.

"It's really important, this is the beauty of the competition.

"Someone asked me the other day, 'your season looks like it’s dwindling out?’ It’s not, because we still had eight games to go and a lot of the teams we’re playing are either ahead of us or around us. There’s still a lot that can happen. All we can control is what we do on Saturday.

"It’s really important we back that up now, really important that we don’t leave it.

"It was a good performance and a courageous performance against a good Scarlets side but if we leave it there it won’t count for much.

"We're very aware coming into this block of games, my message was that we had eight games left and we need to win six of them to put us in a position to try and be playing Champions Cup next season.

"When we finished that game on Saturday night I went to shake Jarrad Butler’s hand and the first thing he