In the true spirit of frontiersmen, Pat Lam's pioneers finished up back home in Galway clinching the win that ensures they will be flying the Irish flag all on their own later in the season. Connacht's reward for taking it all in their stride ensures that the top half of the Guinness PRO12 will be represented when the European Challenge Cup knock-out stages come round in April.
Their travels are far from over. Reaching the last eight for the second season in a row means another quarter-final on the road, this time in Grenoble against opponents who topped their pool at the expense of Edinburgh, London Irish and Agen.
John Muldoon and his men will be in seventh heaven should they ensure that history repeats itself. They have been to Grenoble before, at the same stage of the same competition eleven years ago, winning 26-21 in France and again, at home, more decisively 19-3 when quarter-finals were decided over two legs.
This time they will have to cope with Grenoble and their very own Irish contingent, including former Connacht hooker Bernard Jackman in his capacity as head coach and ex-Munster scrum half Mike Prendergast, in his third season at the club as skills coach.
The prospect of testing themselves on another foreign field with the sun on their backs and a semi-final at stake can wait. For Connacht, all that matters from now until the Grenoble date in the second week of April is getting back on track for a goal they have yet to reach.
Making the Guinness PRO12 play-offs remains the major challenge, one made all the more formidable by the fact that this season's race has never been more intense with eight contenders. Now it enters a phase made all the more uncertain by the calls of the RBS 6 Nations.
Connacht may have won four of their six European ties but their sole concern now is to stop the rot in the Guinness PRO12. As big games go, they don't come any bigger this weekend than the Scarlets' visit to Galway on Saturday afternoon - first against fourth, Ireland against Wales eight days before the countries meet in the opening round of the RBS 6 Nations.
Whatever the outcome, it will have a real impact on the race to finish in the play-offs culminating in the Final at BT Murrayfield on May 28. That Connacht can close the gap on the Scarlets to one point or fall as far as nine behind gives a contrasting indication of how much is at stake.
Viewed from Lam's perspective, there is also the small matter of settling an all too recent score. Before embarking on their final push into Europe's last eight against Brive and the Russians of Enisei-STM, Connacht's last bit of Guinness PRO12 business brought the anguish of a last-minute defeat at, of all places, the Parc y Scarlets.
Their Llanelli trip had all but hoisted them back to joint top of the table until the latest of penalties, from the Scarlets' substitute fly half Steven Shingler, turned a 19-18 away win into a 21-19 loss - enough for the Welsh region to stay one point ahead of the pack.
The weekend starts on Friday night at Rodney Parade, appropriately so given the Dragons' achievement as the first Guinness PRO12 team to book a place in the quarter-finals of either European tournament.
Like Connacht, they, too, won four Challenge Cup ties out of six. Unlike Connacht, the Dragons avoided having to go as far as Siberia, not that that made their progress any less commendable. Qualification in their case meant beating French teams three times out of four (Pau twice, Castres once) and an even break from two matches against Sale Sharks.
For their return to the Guinness PRO12, the Dragons will be ready for a test likely to be more formidable than any they faced in Europe even if a few Irish internationals are otherwise engaged. Leinster may have had the roughest of rides in the Champions' Cup but seven straight wins in the Guinness PRO12 leaves no doubt that they intend reclaiming the title won last season by the Warriors.
The former champions have not lost a Guinness PRO12 match since making their first trip to Wales back during the midst of the Rugby World Cup, to the Scarlets in mid-October when the Canadian wing DTH van der Merwe marked his debut with two tries in a 25-14 win.
Since then Leinster have swept all before them - in Dublin against the Warriors (23-18) Scarlets (19-15), Ulster (8-3), Connacht (13-0) and on the road at Treviso (27-3), Munster (24-7) and Ospreys (22-9). That explains why they stand one point from the summit with a game in hand on the rest of the current top four.
Edinburgh, up to third on the strength largely of their festive double over the Warriors, are also in Wales, at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday afternoon running into a Blues team enjoying their best spell of the campaign.
Munster, fifth but with a game in hand on Connacht immediately above them, return to Italy after rounding off their Champions' Cup series with an emphatic maximum point win over Benetton Treviso. Saturday takes them to Parma for a crack against a Zebre team denied the most honourable of draws against Gloucester last week because of a last-minute penalty.
Ulster follow Munster to Treviso on Saturday eager to prove they have made a swift recovery from last weekend's galling experience when they suffered the nearest of near-misses in the Champions' Cup. Their players and supporters endured 24 hours in a state of suspension after the landslide home win over Oyonnax only to miss the cut for the last eight by one place and one point.
Ospreys, another team to fall at the last Champions Cup hurdle, complete the Guinness PRO12 weekend in Swansea on Sunday against the Warriors, fresh from an emphatic win on new ground in Kilmarnock over the hitherto unbeaten Racing 92.
If they are to defend their title and make the most of their two games in hand, the champions can ill afford to lose any more ground. The same, of course, goes for the Ospreys which should make for a humdinger at the Liberty.
Winning streaks:
Leinster 7, Blues 3, Edinburgh 3, Zebre 2.
Losing runs:
Benetton Treviso 12, Connacht 4, Warriors 2, Dragons 2.
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