Conan would love chance of showdown with Crusaders

SENSIBLE reasons like season scheduling may always get in the way of it happening, but Leinster star Jack Conan admits he’d love to get a chance to take on the recently-crowned Super Rugby champions Crusaders in the ultimate North v South clash.

With the Rugby Championship about to begin and the European season still a couple of weeks away, the prospect of such a fixture ever getting the go-ahead is highly unlikely and Conan is fully aware of that.

But he and his Leinster teammates would love a chance to prove that they are the world’s best.

“It’d be an unbelievable spectacle, everyone would love to see it happen,” he said.

“Obviously the timing of fixtures doesn’t suit – we’re coming into pre-season, we haven’t played a game in a few months, they’re going into international duty. I’m not sure it’ll ever happen, but it’d be an exciting prospect.”

Leinster’s focus is on trying to back up the season of a lifetime and senior coach Stuart Lancaster kicked things off by running the squad through footage of every try they conceded last season.

“That was day one of the pre-season,” Conan said with a smile. “You don’t let people get too ahead of themselves, thinking, ‘We won everything, we’re great’.

HUMBLING

“It was a very humbling start to the year. Even some of the tries we conceded in September last year were referred to.

“We did grow and get better throughout the season and the mistakes we were making earlier on we weren’t making in the latter stages.

“But, there is definitely a massive scope for improvement when it comes to our defensive capabilities and some of the tries we conceded, especially as a forward pack giving up maul tries. That is never a great experience.

“There is an onus on that this year to make sure we are on top of our game.”

After bridging the six-year gap between their third and fourth European titles, Leinster are out to keep their foot on the pedal as they begin the drive for five.

“Constant hunger, you need to constantly want to get better,” Conan said when asked what the key was to backing up a season like last year.

“You need creativity from the coaches as well. Over the last few weeks we were doing drills we’d never done before which makes it interesting, it doesn’t feel like Groundhog Day, there’s been a massive change up in the last few weeks, which makes it interesting.

“You’ll never have to question the work ethic or the drive from the lads, because it’s the competitive nature of rugby players, we always want to win.”