The defence coach said: “Where we’re fortunate is the core group of boys in here have been in this position many times before. They’ve been here when they’ve had success, but on the flip side of that, they’ve also had disappointment in weeks like this. So, I think everyone’s got a good understanding of what needs to be done. And I think the first thing is not looking too far ahead. We’ve already lost in the quarter-final of one competition this season, which hurt a lot, it took quite a big toll on a lot of the people in the building. So, it is very much just looking at Connacht this Friday and not trying to look any further past that.
“With Stuart Lancaster going in there as head coach, sometimes it does take a little bit of time in terms of bedding in his systems on both sides of the ball. When they beat us earlier in the season they then went on a really good run of wins, and I think they are the form team coming into the knockouts, even though they’re coming in in eighth place.
“I don’t think their form properly reflects that. So, we’re under no illusions how difficult a task it’s going to be. They’re a very hard team to break down defensively, they fill the field well, they put bodies in the front line and we weren’t able to break them down over there. So I think with the team that we roll out on Friday night, we know we’re going to have to front up physically. It all starts there. We’re going to have to dent some holes in their front line and their defence, otherwise it’s going to be really difficult.”
Lancaster will come up against his son, Dan, the Glasgow fly-half and Forrest revealed the pair have chosen not to discuss it for the time being.
“I think they’re on a communication ban at the moment. They normally speak quite regularly but I’m pretty sure from last week there was no chat of rugby between the two of them. Listen, Dan’s in a position where he knows what he needs to do. So he’s not going to look at personal battles and individual battles. We know our strength is as a collective, it always has been, in terms of how we go about our business, so that’s got to be the focus for us.”
Head coach Franco Smith had hoped for a clean bill of health from his squad by the time the quarter-final rolled around but Forrest was non-committal on whether any of those currently injured would make it for this weekend.
“Jamie Dobie and Scott Cummings trained last week,” he revealed. “So we just need to see how they react today. I think some of the injured boys were in at the tail end of last week with the S&C and the medical team to top up their loads that they’ve not had since they’ve been out. So, firstly, I think it’s great to see them back on the pitch, it gives everyone a lift. We’ll just wait and see whether they’re actually in the mix this week. Or, obviously if we get past this weekend, whether it is it going to be the week after.
“[Gregor Brown] is a tough one. It was his first game back from his hamstring injury and he’s tweaked his calf against Ulster. He didn’t train last week because we only trained on Monday and Tuesday as a team. So it’s really just a case of assessing it. He was in a boot straight after the game, which I think is just protective at this point. Anyone that’s got any sort of ankle, foot or calf type injury goes into a boot. Him and Ben Afshar were the same but they’re both out of a boot now so it’s really just to see how they react this week.
“With [Matt Fagerson] that was probably a little bit more of a precaution [scratching him from the team to play Ulster]. He trained in at the start of that week and then pulled up towards the end of the week, nothing too serious. He just felt his groin a little bit, so again, he should be back in the mix. [Huw Jones] us still recovering in terms of his foot injury. He’s not been on pitch this week so he didn’t train last week. He will hopefully play again this season but whether it’s this week or semi-final, again if we get there, then we’ll just wait and see. But he’s still being led by the S&C and the medical team.”