Grenoble head coach Bernard Jackman apologised for his side's one point win over Connacht on Saturday night.
The Top 14 side defeated Pat Lam's team 33-32 in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. An away semi-final now awaits Jackman's side against Conor O'Shea's Harlequins.
"I am really sorry that we won tonight. I am really happy for us, but I feel if Connacht won there would be absolutely no regrets on my part.... It's very difficult to come to France and win and Connacht did everything but."
Jackman added that the Pro 12 high-flyers will have grabbed the attention of the French public with their performance. "Connacht aren't a team that are well known in France. The match was live on free-to-air television. They showed France and the rest of Europe what we saw when we analysed them. They are a team that has made a massive amount of progress, for a young side. They are a team that are growing, and believe in what they are trying to achieve."
The Connacht team dejected after the game. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie
Despite the loss, Connacht head coach Pat Lam was delighted with his side's attitude. "I sat in the changing room while the boys were out there (on the field). I was obviously deflated and then I just started to reflect on the week we had. There was a lot of last-minute changes and I thought; 'Jeez, I'm proud of these guys'."
"We will be disappointed on Monday, because there was a couple of details we didn't quite nail. There was an opportunity when we were 13 points up and we didn't execute what we had done in training... I knew at 13 we just needed to get one more score and we could have killed them off. Fair play to them."
Munster await Connacht in the Pro12 next week and Lam expects his side to bounce back quickly from the loss. "We have had the situations before, during the Christmas break. The boys have already talked about it. We will take our learnings from it. This competition is now over. We cant take it back. We will go and dissect the game."
"We're looking forward to it. We know we have three games to try and make the top-four. We will get over it and get back into training this week."
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