The former Manu Samoa rugby international Pat Lam says he's looking forward to coaching full-time again after being named to take charge of Irish strugglers Connacht.
The 44 year old reapplied for his job at the Blues in last year but was replaced by Sir John Kirwan.
He has accepted a two-year contract and says the opportunity to return to the Northen Hemisphere was kick-started while he was helping Samoa during their November tour.
"When I was over there a few clubs spoke to me about the possibilty of coming up and Connacht, when I met with their board, and they outlined where they've come from, where they are and the sort of work that's been going on behind the scenes, and then I started to do a bit of homework and, when I was there, I asked a lot of people about Galway - just random people off the street - and they were saying it was the best place in Ireland and then you start doing your homework and you realise actually this team is going places from starting right scratch at the bottom, so that sort of appealed to me as a challenge."
Pat Lam will officially take over at Connacht in June.
