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MEET Pat Lam, the new Connacht coach. You’ve probably heard about his exemplary playing career with club and country, and his somewhat mixed coaching career, but who is he and what’s he like?

He’s 44. He was born in Avondale, a small suburb on the west side of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. His parents are from Samoa.  He likes a Guinness. Not many mind – not any more. “I had my fair share when I was a younger man”. He’s not gone on watching television; just the odd bit with his children, some news, some sport.

He likes golf. He’s played Galway Bay and Carton House. He plays off a handicap in the twenties. His parents are better at golf; they’ll come over to join him soon for an extended month-long holiday.

He’s married to Stephanie or ‘Steph’ for short. They have five children. Four are in Galway, and have settled into school. One, the eldest boy, is in university back in New Zealand. He’s coming to Galway in December to celebrate his 21st birthday.

Pat Lam arrived in Galway on April 2. He’d never been here before that. He’d been to Dublin, Cork and Limerick as coach and player. When he arrived here he was “overwhelmed”; he thinks it’s “beautiful” in the West of Ireland; the people “so, so friendly”.

It’s lived up to his expectations so far . . . except for the weather: The first seven days he arrived it was wall-to-wall sunshine. It’s the hottest summer in decades.

He’ll soon experience the ‘true’ weather – wind and rain at the Sportsground. He says there’s “nothing” he doesn’t like about Galway. He might revise that once the rain arrives.

Steph likes Galway, too. “My wife came here and she just said ‘this feels like home’. She just loves it here. My kids enjoy it, and that makes it easy.”

He says he was an “average” student in school. His passion was sport. He did enough to get through university. He’s a qualified teacher. He taught Form 2, the Irish equivalent of which is sixth class primary school. He did three years doing drug education programmes in schools throughout New Zealand.

He enjoys music, reads the odd book. But his main preoccupation, outside of rugby, is his family. He loves spending time with his family. Holidays are spent in Samoa. Samoans and Irish are similar – “there’s good craic from both,” he says.

There are other similarities – timekeeping. “In Samoa we call it ‘Island Time’, which is late. I’ve found here that ‘Irish Time’ or ‘Ireland Time’ is the same as ‘Island Time’, if not worse. If someone says something is going to happen at 7.30pm, that means 8.30pm in Island Time and over here, in Ireland, I’m realising it’s about 9.30pm.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune