Storms are still lashing the country and black clouds hang over Ireland’s training centre out in Abbotstown as Jack Conan saunters in fresh off the pitch for a chat. No better man to counter the prevailing winds.
The Leinster back row’s default setting seems be locked in on sunny. Upbeat.
He talks of the privilege that comes with being part of that group of men and to wear that jersey. It’s a realisation that has cemented with age. He’s 33 by now, after all, and 56 caps into his Test career. An elder statesman, as he says himself.
So, if Paris still causes some chills then he’s determined in the here and now to soak in the experience, warts and all, that comes with being a professional rugby player in the midst of a Six Nations campaign. And not just when he looks back on all this from his dotage.
“Yeah, it hurts, and you’re a bit embarrassed, and your ego’s bruised and everything else, but it’s still a joy to be here and a privilege to do what we do,” he explains. “I don’t think that can ever be lost on you.”
Mack Hansen, another of those people whose energy gives to the grid rather than takes from it, was in the HPC this week to do some injury rehab and meet up with the squad. These characters are invaluable in any team, especially in such stormy climes.
There’s all sorts of hand-wringing going on in the media and online about spiralling results, form lines, age profiles and a perceived lack of quality coming up through the grassroots and into the elite game. Conan doesn’t frame it that way.
Too many good players and good people in the squad for it to be something systemic, he says. Scrum coach John Fogarty held a similar line this week, sidestepping questions about that disturbing trend with a ‘next game focus’ response.
The problem is that Ireland suffered the same fate to the French in Dublin last year. And to the Springboks in November. And to the All Blacks in Chicago. Conan just sees Paris as a consequence of players acting as individuals rather than anything else.
“So that’s a shortcoming of the players, not the coaches.” This is a moot point. Joe Schmidt was the most extreme example of a coach dictating the actions of his players on the field of play, the Kiwi drilling down to extraordinary depths to draw up blueprints that could be followed by rote.
Andy Farrell benefited massively by releasing that pressure valve and shifting the onus back towards the players. Conan describes the lines of communication between the parties now as a “two-way street” as lessons from Stade de France are crunched and compounded.
“As the week goes on, the coaches’ voices dim down a little bit and the players’ voices build a little bit and we’ll drive a lot of things. It’s both giving feedback and answering questions and trying to get a better understanding of why we were at the level that we were and not where we wanted to be.”
So often the loquacious type, he reserves his shortest answer for the moment when the theory is put to him that maybe the massive Irish input into last summer’s British and Irish Lions tour of Australia is a contributing factor to current ailments.
“No, I think that’s nonsense really, to be honest with you. That’s probably people looking for an excuse or a headline or something like that. I don’t have much to say on that, but I don’t think that’s true.”
His performance off the bench in the Stade de France already stood as part-counter to that argument. The reward for that impact is a slot at his favourite No.8 slot against Italy with Ulster’s Cormac Izuchukwu at blindside and Caelan Doris shifted to openside.
It’s the fourth time that the two Leinster colleagues will appear together with those particular shirts on their backs as Farrell sieves through his options for a balanced back row in the absence of the retired Peter O’Mahony and the injured Ryan Baird.
“You have to ask Caelan what it is like to play seven,” said Conan, who turned out on the blindside against Italy in Rome last March, of that partnership. “Because for me, if I’m playing eight, it’s kind of home sweet home, isn’t it? You know what I mean?
“I’m well used to, and I enjoy, playing with Caelan. He’s obviously, in my eyes, one of the best eights in the world, and a great bloke, probably firstly, which is most important, and a fantastic leader for this group. You want your best players out there and to try new things.”
