Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NICE T O B E BACK C O N TRACK
Jack’s full of the joys of spring
WHISTLE UNHAPPY
Six Nations ref Pascal Gauzere made two errors that resulted in Welsh tries
JACK CONAN admits playing for Ireland was an “absolute joy” after an 18-month absence.
Little did Conan know that a training ground injury days before the World Cup loss to hosts Japan in September 2019 would keep him out of Test rugby for so long.
The back row pushed the envelope in the build-up to those finals as he nursed a foot injury but, having thought he had fully recovered, disaster struck.
And, due to surgery and then the Covid lockdown, it was last August before he could play again.
“It’s been a long time coming, it’s fantastic,” Conan declared.
“I can’t speak highly enough of how great it was to go out there on Saturday and get an opportunity to play even five minutes. To get 20 was fantastic.
“It’s been a bit of a miserable road the last couple of months but I feel like I’m getting back to a bit of decent form and I’m over the moon.”
The Leinster forward added: “By my own standards when I got back playing in August I wasn’t at the races or at the standard I needed to be at for Leinster or for Ireland.
“I appreciate the opportunity and faith the Leinster coaches had in me. They gave me a few run outs to get back but I picked up a few more niggles and it wasn’t until the last two or three weeks have I felt like I’m back to where I was before my injury.”
Conan, 28, believes Ireland knew their attack was ready to click and insists that on top form the men in green are an “incredible” team.
The weekend’s six-try haul against a poor Italian side did come amid the noisy background of criticism after only two tries in the opening two defeats.
“We always back ourselves, we know our own ability,” Conan said. “There’s been a lot of criticism of our attack but we knew we had it in us.
“Sometimes you just need the rub of the green, the first day we went down to 14 men and that’s not the time to throw offloads and push through and make special calls.
“I know it’s been incredibly frustrating the last couple of weeks with results not going our way, our backs are against the wall and there’s been a lot of criticism which is overly harsh at times.
“But when things go well, we’re an incredible team. There’s massive scope for improvement across the board.
“It’s really exciting times for Irish rugby and for this group, there’s fantastic talent coming through.
“The likes of Ryan Baird and Craig Casey winning their first caps, they are really exciting lads who I can’t wait to see what they can bring to the jersey.”