WHILE YOUNGER MEN around him grabbed more of the immediate plaudits, 35-year-old Johnny Sexton delivered one of his finest performances for Ireland as Andy Farrell’s side beat England in the Six Nations on Saturday.
Robbie Henshaw was man of the match, Tadhg Beirne shone again alongside the brilliant Iain Henderson in the second row, and Tadhg Furlong showed his quality at tighthead prop.
But Sexton’s contributions, including his 22 points, were essential to Ireland finishing their championship on a high, as discussed by Eoin Toolan, Gavan Casey, and Murray Kinsella on today’s episode of The42 Rugby Weekly Extra – an analysis podcast available to members of The42 every Monday.
Gavan: “Johnny Sexton had his best game of the championship and probably his best game for Ireland since 2018, and proved again how important he is to this team. He actually really embodied a captain, even in the aggression with which he carried the ball to the line which felt like a catalyst for what Ireland did well.
“Eoin, it’s some response, given that some people have been waiting for somebody else to put their hand up, step up to the mantle and replace them. It’s kind of a do-or-die game for this whole team and one of the guys who stands up most is a 35-year-old who has probably had the weight of a country on his shoulders in the last couple of years.”
Eoin: “To get a run of games back-to-back has been important because with Covid it has been a truncated season and he just needed a run of games.
“He is so important to Ireland’s attacking structure. He understands how the coaches want to play and he’s that on-field coach, he manages the team so well. His goal-kicking, he was 25 from 26 in the Six Nations, which is incredible. There were important kicks to go three, six, nine against England and build the scores.
“His kicking out of hand was good and he threatened the line on a couple of occasions. I don’t think anyone has ever doubted Johnny’s quality.
Sexton has been excellent off the tee. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
“As importantly, we talked about Ireland’s scrum and lineout being a weapon again. It is probably something that had regressed in the past 12 to 18 months but it’s certainly a strength of Ireland’s again that they can launch from and puts Ireland on the front foot.
“Any 10 worth his salt needs his forwards going forward and that was Ireland’s best performance in that regard.”
Murray: “As you say, Gav, he epitomised the aggression levels. It almost gets missed because he’s so good at it but he is easily the best defender of any option Ireland have ever had at 10 and he’s still one of the best defenders amongst backs in the game.
“If you look at his aggression in the tackle, it is just astounding. I’m sure loads of coaches have told him to take it a bit easier on himself but he just has that spirit in him and it’s definitely infectious.
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“What you’re like as a defender and competitor is a massive, massive part of the game.”
LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen says he doesn’t buy into the suggestion Munster’s squad will ‘want it more’ heading into today’s Pro14 final [KO 5pm, eir Sport/TG4] at the RDS.
Munster come into the game looking to end a five-game losing streak against Leinster, while also chasing a first trophy since 2011. Leinster, on the other hand, are eyeing a fourth straight Pro14 title and also feel they are well placed to challenge for a first Champions Cup success since 2018.
However, Cullen insists his squad’s history of success hasn’t sated their appetite for silverware, particularly when it comes to playing their biggest rivals.
“I think our guys enjoy competing. Our guys have a chance to do something quite special as well, to lift four Guinness Pro14 titles in a row,” Cullen said.
“We’re at home (at the RDS) and it means a huge amount to the players. Who they represent, what they represent as well. There’s a huge amount of players who have had to work incredibly hard to get into this position, so there’s a great responsibility on the 23 (selected).”
Cullen’s team selection is one of the big talking points ahead of the game, with the Leinster head coach deciding against flooding his team with frontline internationals.
Instead, Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe all start on the bench as Cullen keeps faith with some of those who have soldiered through the regular season Pro14 fixtures this year.
The selection of Ross Byrne at out-half ahead of Sexton represents one of the bigger calls Cullen faced this week.
“Ross has played a lot of games of us over the last number of years, a lot of very important games,” Cullen said.
“He’s very controlled and composed, and he’s a competitive character, Ross, like all the great 10s out there.
“For Jamison and Johnny coming back in, because they’ve been fully ingrained in camp mode, for them coming back in at the start of the week, it’s to try and give them a bit of a window of opportunity just to find their feet a little bit more and get back into our system.”
Munster head coach Johann van Graan has taken a different approach and gone full-strength with his starting team, but Cullen says the fundamentals of the contest remain the same regardless of who is playing.
“We know that we’re playing against a hugely motivated team, what’s changed there really? They’re always pretty motivated to beat us.
“For us, it’s to make sure we’re motivated to beat them, because if we lose it won’t be an enjoyable feeling. There’s different various components that will be important.
“Motivation is one thing, but tactics and how we go about translating it into the team, trying to understand the conditions and what it’s going to be like at 5pm – we’ll wait and see.
“Different interpretations by the referee and how he referees the breakdown, as an example, how we can adapt on the day around set-piece and who gets that upper-hand in all those little battles across the park… The players know about all these individual sub-plots. I know the next international window is quite a while away, but these are all trial games as such when you’re going up against your rival for further honours.
Ross Byrne kicks at goal during yesterday’s captain’s run. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO
“It’s important for us to understand, there’s always so much in terms of motivating factors, so hopefully our guys won’t be short in that department.”
When asked where the game will be won and lost, Cullen pointed to Munster’s strengths around the breakdown, as well as how that area of the game is policed.
“I think the contact area is important,” he continued.
“The aerial challenge will be a big part of the game. You can see it’s a strength of Conor Murray in terms of his box-kicking and in terms of their chase… how we deal with that aerial threat will be important.
“Some of the ruck threats, the likes of Tadhg (Beirne) and CJ Stander; they push the limits – quite often as tackler assists, they don’t show a clear release so how they get refereed for starters and how we deal with that is important because they’re on the edge all the time.
“They’re very, very competitive so we just need to make sure that we’re able to deal with those threats and how we’re able to manage it ourselves and just try to focus on how we can control things ourselves, so big games, final games, discipline, taking opportunities when they come along. They are the big pieces, aren’t they?
“So if someone does something out of character because they’re trying too hard… (it’s about) being in control of our emotions, and we’re nice and clear in our minds in terms of discipline because sometimes these games come down to who gives away the least amount of penalties, or who kicks the penalties when it comes down to it, or who managed to take an opportunity that comes along during the course of the game.
“It’s about nailing those big moments in the game.”
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Source: The42 Rugby Weekly/SoundCloud
Murray Kinsella, Bernard Jackman and Gavan Casey field listeners’ questions about Ireland’s victory over England before turning their attention to the club game, and Super Rugby in the Pacific Islands, prospective law trials up north and, of course, this weekend’s Pro14 final between old rivals.
ALL ROADS LEAD back to Sixways.
At least, all enquiries about Connacht’s recent record of tackling English opposition far from the The Sportsground do.
The western province have been down some of the less-trodden tracks in European rugby. They have sampled success from Spain to Siberia, are regular visitors to Scotland, Wales and Italy by dint of Celtic League competition and in France they have a winning return of over 40% with 16 victories from 37 trips to take on Top14 opposition – including the tallest of timbers in Toulouse.
Yet their fond memories of European away days in England are few and fading.
So when they take on Leicester Tigers this Saturday night they will have a trend of 2/27 to buck.
From Kingsholm to Kingston Park, Allianz Park to Sandy Park and the Ricoh Arena to The Stoop; there have been dark days, dreadful days and days of heroism bathed in glorious sunshine, but almost all end in defeat.
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Worcester Warriors’ Sixways is the one English venue where Connacht have sung ‘The Fields’ in celebratory mood this century – a 2009 win that bridged a gap back to when Warren Gatland’s Westerners shocked Northampton.
From there, the roads diverge. Some further over the horizon than others.
The day’s fullback Gavin Duffy has moved upstairs in the Sportsground. Centre Aidan Wynne is still involved with Buccaneers. Bernie Upton, one of the day’s young second rows, has beaten a path back to New Zealand. John Muldoon, blindside in December 2009, found himself coaching against his native province in Bristol colours this season.
Frank Murphy in possession for Connacht.
There are other unlikely reunions now and then. Although a shared memory of a landmark win probably didn’t come up in conversation when Ian Keatley took the field in Glasgow on Saturday under the watch of his 2009 half-back partner Frank Murphy – now a top class referee.
For Brett Wilkinson, loosehead prop on the day, the road has led to Hong Kong where he has been working as a coach in recent years.
“It was like any other trip,” Wilkinson says over a Zoom call when The42 ask him to drill into his memory bank. This is not an epic tale of Connacht taking down Goliath, this was a match they were capable of winning and did. Only the rarity of its ilk makes it remarkable.
“I remember the first 15 minutes of that game being really tough. Scrum was under pressure, physically we were behind the 8 ball a bit, but we really grew into it.
“We got on top and finished really strong, which is probably the most pleasing thing. Teams often start strong and tail off, but we went the other way. We started, probably a bit nervous to be honest, but after 10-15 minutes we started dominating.”
Connacht were 10-3 down during that opening quarter to Mike Ruddock’s team, the momentum shift came thanks to a surging run from Keatley to the the try-line. The young 10 would keep the scoreboard ticking upward, turning dominance into points for his side before Fionn Carr and a 22-year-old Sean Cronin turned a promising position into a win with tries of their own.
That energetic cohort of young talent was critical in the win on English soil and central to what Eric Elwood was trying to build.
“We were able to be more consistent playing some exciting stuff with the young guys adding to what we had before. Around then was when we took another step in that journey. Those guys added a huge amount. We had confidence as a squad that we were capable of winning big games.”
George Naoupu, Ray Ofisa and Aidan Wynne move to tackle Kai Horstmann.
Confidence was well-founded. Connacht had gone to Worcester with an away win over Montpellier under their belt and would go on to complete a clean sweep through the Challenge Cup pool phase, paving the way for a European campaign that brought them all the way to a semi-final against Toulon – an up-and-comer if ever there was one.
So why no win on English soil since?
As ever, there is no one straightforward answer. Perhaps the willingness of Top14 clubs to throw their hat at Europe has given an inflated sense of on-the-road success for all Irish provinces. Maybe the special scalp that English clubs represent for Irish teams has pushed Connacht to over-reach now and then, taking a big swing when jabbing away might have brought them the edge they needed.
“We had a good squad, but we just lacked the depth. I think you look at Connacht’s results over time and a lot of it comes down to that. You do well and compete for 60 minutes, then you fall off the edge of a cliff,” says Wilkinson, whose final appearance before injury-enforced retirement at the age of 30 was away to Saracens.
“As players we knew we had to be really good, otherwise we’d go and get a pasting. We knew if we could stay in an arm wrestle, you gave yourself a chance because the English game was all up front physicality, big men getting on the ball. We knew if we could match them physically we’d be there or thereabouts.”
Sean Cronin looks to push forward. Source: Worcester News/INPHO
As Wilkinson chats through his memory, he notices a theme emerging. Strands match up and he notes that he might recount the tale of the 2013 win over Toulouse with some of the same words.
“It taught us that if you stay in that arm wrestle, you suddenly grow some confidence. Same as when we played Toulouse. At half-time we were thinking: ‘we’re in this!’ We came out after half-time and Kieran Marmion scores in the corner. Robbie Henshaw had a try disallowed for a forward pass and we’re thinking ‘Jesus, we’re on here’.
And there, maybe, inlies a lasting lesson for a modern Connacht team setting out to tackle one of English rugby’s most decorated fellows.
Winning on the road, whatever the venue, whatever the nation, requires a little luck, a timely surge in momentum and no small measure of just hanging in there to await the best time to strike.
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AT THE TWICKENHAM Stoop tonight [KO 8pm, BT Sport], both teams have laid out where their priorities lie this season.
In one corner, you have Ulster, who have welcomed back all of their internationals for this Challenge Cup last-16 tie and, bar the injured Iain Henderson and Marcell Coetzee, are as full-strength as Dan McFarland could have asked them to be.
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland. Source: Matteo Ciambelli/INPHO
In the other, you have Harlequins, who are very much not.
The Premiership side didn’t say outright that this was their intention for this game but, reading between the lines of what line-out coach Jerry Flannery said in mid-week, you knew that a team shorn of all their star names was coming, and so it proved.
A cursory look at their absentee list tells you all you need to know: Joe Marler, Wilco Louw, Stephan Lewies, Will Evans, Alex Dombrandt, Danny Care, Marcus Smith, Andre Esterhuizen and Mike Brown all sit out.
In their wake, the coaching staff have six academy players in their matchday squad, two of whom – Matas Jurevicius and former Munster academy scrum-half Jack Stafford – are in line for their senior debuts off the bench.
There is still quality on the Quins side as they bring Scottish internationals James Lang and Scott Steele into their backline, while Ulster fans will have nightmares of rampaging hooker Elia Elia’s dominant display at Kingspan Stadium last season, but, in reality, this is a home side missing a lot of talent.
Such is the lay of the land in the second-tier Challenge Cup that Ulster have found themselves in. Their punishment for defeats to Toulouse and Gloucester before Christmas is coming up against a team who are fourth in the Premiership and clearly prioritising their push for the domestic play-offs.
In stark contrast to their opponents, Ulster have no other commitments to steal their attention currently and, as expected, they are all-in for this game.
And the truth is this should be a straightforward win for the province. Their squad is more talented and more experienced than their hosts’, and the opportunity to take a big step towards claiming their first silverware since 2006 is a tantalising one they won’t want to pass up.
But, while their task has been made easier by the absence of Quins’ front-line stars, if anything it has also ramped up the pressure on Dan McFarland’s side. While before they were simply seen as one of the top sides remaining in the Challenge Cup, now the expectation is that they will reach the quarter-finals – where Northampton Saints lie in wait – fairly easily.
Jordi Murphy captains Ulster tonight. Source: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO
So, while they perhaps aren’t getting the challenge that they wanted in the Champions Cup, Ulster get a chance to prove tonight that when the pressure is on them as favourites in a knockout match, they can deliver. And that’s the kind of thing that this squad has yet to learn.
While the Challenge Cup is not one of the two pieces of silverware Ulster would ideally be adding to the trophy cabinet at Kingspan Stadium, claiming the title would be a valuable learning experience for a squad that is heading in the right direction but needs to prove, both to their doubters and to themselves, how to close out tournaments.
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“We want to win trophies,” asserted scrum-half John Cooney earlier this week, echoing the sentiments of head coach McFarland, Rob Herring and Nick Timoney before him.
The Challenge Cup affords them the best chance to do so for a long time. And tonight presents them with a great chance to take a big step in the right direction, both literally and mentally.
Harlequins
(15-9) Tyrone Green; Luke Northmore, James Lang, Paul Lasike, Nathan Earle; Brett Herron, Scott Steele; (1-8) Santiago Garcia Botta, Elia Elia, Will Collier; Hugh Tizard, George Hammond; Archie White, Jack Kenningham, Tom Lawday (captain).
Replacements: George Head, Jordan Els, Simon Kerrod, Tevita Cavubati, Matas Jurevicius, Jack Stafford, Ben Tapuai, Ross Chisholm.
Ulster
(15-9) Michael Lowry; Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Billy Burns, John Cooney; (1-8) Eric O’Sullivan, Rob Herring, Marty Moore; Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell; Sean Reidy, Jordi Murphy (captain), Nick Timoney.
Replacements: John Andrew, Andy Warwick, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Matty Rea, Alby Mathewson, Ian Madigan, Ethan McIlroy.
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
RUGBY DIDN’T FIND Nichola Fryday easily. During her time as a student in Kilkenny College, hockey was the big draw.
Rugby is more prominent at the school now, but at that stage it was just sprinkled into Fryday’s schedule every second Tuesday in Transition Year. While Fryday enjoyed her early exposure to the sport, she didn’t she her association with it going beyond those fortnightly outings.
Life moved on. A few years later, the idea of playing rugby crept up again at home in Tullamore. This time, she jumped at it.
“I think it was my second year in college, I was at home for the summer. I was working but I didn’t really have any sport outlet after college finished, so it was my mum actually that suggested maybe I could look into going into the local club because my uncle would have been heavily involved within the club, and they knew there was a women’s team that was going quite well at the time.
Fryday impressed at Tullamore RFC and was an Ireland international by 2016, becoming the club’s first senior women’s international.
She now has 16 Ireland caps to her name, lining out in the second row alongside Aoife McDermott in last weekend’s 45-0 win over Wales.
The win sets Ireland up nicely for a shot at the upset they openly targeted coming into this Six Nations, with France in town this Saturday. The winner will play England to determine the winner of the 2021 championship.
“I think this is going to be a great opportunity for both sides,” Fryday says.
“If we can get our defence right and put pressure on them then that’s a good opportunity for us. But on the same side, on the attack, I think if we can get our phases together and use our speedy backs, we have a really good opportunity to be scoring tries as well.
“I think it’s going to be a great game and we are really, really excited for it.”
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Fryday anticipates a busy afternoon, with both sides determined to play fast, attacking rugby.
“I think the main point (for me against France) will be ball security. So if it means I have to hit nearly every ruck, I’ll happily do it, if it means we are getting the ball to our strong players and getting gainline.
“But I suppose for a second row, we want to be clearing the rucks but we want to be carrying and getting the soft shoulders and using our hands as well. So our roles don’t really change, I don’t think. I still think we can play to our strengths and play the way we have been training, it’s just about ball security.”
While Ireland were rarely tested defensively by a poor Wales team, France will provide a clearer idea of where this Ireland team are following the disruption of the last year.
Fryday during Ireland training earlier this week. Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO
The visitors are also likely to test Ireland’s lineout given how they struggled in that department last year. And while last weekend’s display was more encouraging when it came to the set-piece, the squad know France will ask much more challenging questions.
From Ireland’s point a view, a strong set-piece offers a perfect platform to unleash the frightening pace on hand in the backline.
“We just kind of went back to our basics,” Fryday explains.
“We’ve focused on our execution, lifts and throws, and our speed across the ground. I think if we can nail all those kind of basic aspects of the lineout, then we should be able to find the space where we’ll get to win the ball cleanly.
“It’s been a real focus for us because we wanted to be able to provide that platform for our backs, so it’s something that we’ve been working really hard on and I think the work has paid off, but we still have improvements that we can make and we can still push on.
“It’s a great opportunity to build your attack. If we’re winning that ball cleanly, then it opens up different areas we can exploit across the pitch so I think if we can get it consistently performing over the next few matches, then it is definitely a weapon that we can use.”
IRELAND HEAD COACH Adam Griggs and hooker Clíodhna Moloney have hailed the impact of Sevens star Stacey Flood in the 15s squad over the past few weeks.
The Dubliner came off the bench in Ireland’s heavy 41-point Six Nations defeat against France last weekend, the replacement out-half a certain bright spark as the clock ran down.
Flood’s performance was one of few positives on a sobering day in Donnybrook, her impressive involvement certainly promising going forward.
It came as the 24-year-old playmaker’s second Ireland 15s cap in a week, having been sprung from the bench in the 45-o win over Wales in Cardiff.
On both occasions, Flood showed ample game intelligence and management, and displayed an impressive zip in her passing — following the family tradition, her older sister, Kim, a dual Ireland rugby international, who is now playing Women’s National League [WNL] football with Wexford Youths, both having also played inter-county football in the past.
Flood is one of several Ireland Sevens stars — Eve Higgins, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, and Emily Lane the others — Griggs predicted could provide ‘X-factor’ in this campaign, and he’s been more than pleased with her showing so far.
“Stacey is obviously a proven performer on the Sevens series,” he told The42 in a media briefing this afternoon. “What we like about her is the way that she can see the game.
“She’s got a really good rugby IQ, she’s been playing it for a long time at a high level. The last couple of performances from her have been top-notch, coming off the bench and adding impact, which we’ve asked her to do.
“What we like about her is she plays heads up rugby and she’s starting to learn more and more that in the 15s game, there is still a framework that we can work off that allows for her to express herself and show some of that talent she has.”
Moloney echoed her coach’s words on the Railway Union star, while teaming up with Guinness for the Never Settle campaign.
“Stacey’s got buckets of talent, she really does,” the Wasps forward said. “She’s a very confident player but she can back it up. She can back it up in every facet of the game.
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“You’ve seen her defence, you’ve seen her turnovers, you’ve seen her kick, you’ve seen her miss pass; she really can do it all. It’s about getting her more exposure to the 15s game, I guess, more and more exposure. She’s learned her trade at Sevens but I think she really will be an excellent 15s player.
“It’s more so about hoping that we retain her and hoping that we keep her in the 15s team. If she is able to do both, that would be fantastic. But we definitely have a big talent in Stacey and we would hope that she would keep performing to her ability in that way.”
Ireland face Italy in this weekend’s third-place play-off, hoping to finish the campaign on a high.
Heineken® Champions Cup star and Rugby Players Ireland ambassador Jack Conan.
IT HAS BEEN impossible to miss Jack Conan’s thunderous form in recent times.
The number eight shone in Ireland’s final game of the Six Nations after being handed a start against England, building on the series of excellent performances he has been delivering for Leinster.
Since, he has been a standout in his province’s wins over Munster and Exeter.
Ahead of next weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup semi-final clash with La Rochelle, Conan talked us through some of the moments that have seen him make a particular impact over the last few months.
The Keith Earls try
A stunning set-piece play from Ireland tore England apart for a first-phase try that featured a wonderful Keith Earls finish after Conan’s skillful touch to redirect Rob Herring’s long lineout throw back inside to the Munster wing.
“All week, we had said to ourselves that this was going to be the first play if we were in that certain area of the pitch,” explains Conan.
“You’re hoping that if you haven’t got your hands on the ball in the first five or 10 minutes of the game, you’ll definitely get a chance with this play because I’m integral to the move.
“But 20 minutes pass and I have barely touched the ball. I’m thinking, ‘I’d want to get the show on the road here, I haven’t done anything.’
“We finally got our opportunity. We kick the ball into touch and Johnny [Sexton] makes the call. I’m thinking to myself, ‘If I drop this here, 20 minutes in and I’ve done nothing, I’m going to get slated for it!’
“We had only done it twice or three times during the week and it hadn’t really come off to the point we wanted to. So I knew it was a big moment.
“We had prepped it for no England tailgunner to be there. Josh [van der Flier, red below] was coming into the lineout for a dummy lift and we hoped he [Tom Curry, yellow below] would bite down on that.
“But I go out and leave the lineout and I’m looking at Tom Curry thinking, ‘Right, he shouldn’t be there, that’s not what we planned for. But c’est la vie, let’s go for it and see what happens.’
“I thought I was going to be absolutely smoked because I’d be at full stretch and he would have just melted me in the ribs. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and I was able to get up barely above him and flick it down to Earlsie.
“It was pretty instinctive at that time because that’s not what we thought was going to happen.
“I thought I was going to get loads of time on the ball to make a decision – either play Earlsie back on the inside or play Bundee short, who was coming at pace outside to go over the top of [George] Ford.
“Curry jumps with me and I’m thinking there’s no way I could get the ball and play it to Bundee, so I could see Earlsie in the corner of my eye. My instinct was to try drop it down to him and hope he could carry it and we would go into our phases.
“But my God, what a change-up he had onto the ball to go straight through and what an incredible finish to go around Jonny May, who is no slouch, and over in the corner – I don’t think anyone thought it was going to go as well as it did.
“I felt in that moment that there was relief, a lot of pressure off me. It couldn’t have gone any better.
“I nailed my bit of it so I could relax and get into the game a little more, not be worried about messing up the move.”
Holding width
Conan continued to impress for Ireland against England, soon featuring three times in their remarkable 23-phase try, which the number eight finished.
Conan’s role within Ireland’s 1-3-2-2 attack shape was to hold width out in the 15-metre channel, where his comfort on the ball is obvious. It’s a position he also occupies very often with Leinster.
“I always love having a bit of space and time on the ball because you have that bit more time to make decisions,” says Conan.
“When you’re playing for Ireland or Leinster, when you’re in at six – which I was for the lineouts that day – you’re predominantly holding a bit of width, with one back rower on the other edge and the number eight more in the middle of the pitch.
“It’s not exactly how we do it in Leinster but it’s not massively different. Some days you can stand out there and the ball is never going to come to you. But we were trying to play with a little more width, we knew England were going to be a little bit more narrow, especially with the 13-2 set-up they have with two in the backfield.
“We felt there would be space on the edge if we were able to hold our feet, stay connected and quite tight to each other because obviously if you throw those long skip passes, they’re going to shoot out of the line because they’re such a high-pressing defensive side.
“It was great to get the ball in my hands with that little bit of space, you get to feed the likes of Jacob [Stockdale] or Hugo [Keenan]. You’re not just running into brick walls the whole time.”
Conan’s finish came on the left-hand side, where he ran a decoy line in front of Sexton before heading to the breakdown and finishing with a clever pick and go.
“Looking back on it, that is a terrible decoy line,” says Conan. “I have not sat down anyone there, I need to be hammering onto that ball as if I was going to get it. At that stage, I was fairly blowing and you’re waiting for your second wind to kick in.
“Once the ball is gone past me, I’m thinking I need to get to the ruck as quickly as I can because I know there are a lot of backs around me who will want to stay out and hold width and stuff.
“I run that awful short line off nine and then try to get back into the ruck.
“That ball through the middle of the ruck is not something we do a lot but I just noticed there was a space there and it was opportunistic at the time. Lucky enough, I have long enough arms to stretch out and get over the line.”
“I couldn’t even tell you the last time I had scored a try before that, I was on a long drought, probably the longest in my career.”
Being direct
While Conan enjoys getting on the ball in wider channels, he is also required to carry directly into heavy traffic close to the ruck at times, as below against Exeter.
“It’s not always the prettiest carries, but it’s about making those inroads and winning the gainline, even if it’s a foot or half a metre,” he explains. “That’s going to make the defensive line work that little bit harder around the corner.
“Hopefully we’re playing at such a high pace, our two barrels or bullets are in nice and early [to clear out the breakdown] so the ball is on a plate for the scrum-half and we can take advantage of that folding defensive system that isn’t set properly because we’re playing at such a high tempo.
“A lot of the time on that kind of carry, you’re thinking to yourself that you want to go hard, be straight, not drifting off the ball. Your width from the nine is important, you don’t want to get too tight because that’s an easy hit and makes for less ‘hold or fold’ decisions for the defensive side.
“And something that Josh van der Flier has done incredibly well the last few weeks is accelerating onto the ball when you get it, being really direct and trying to isolate a defender.
“You don’t want to be tackled by two guys at once so you want to isolate someone, you against them with you moving at full tilt and getting over the gainline.
“So it’s about squaring up, accelerating onto the ball and if you can, get a soft shoulder. But sometimes that’s easier said than done.”
Set-piece roles
Having featured centrally in Ireland’s try off the lineout against England, Conan is also often at the heart of Leinster’s set-piece plays, including the one below against Exeter which ended with a turnover penalty concession.
As Luke McGrath and Josh van der Flier attempt to lure Exeter’s eyes out beyond the 15-metre line, Conan comes back down into the shortside from Devin Toner’s pop.
“The move worked,” says Conan. “Right before we did it, Jack Maunder – who was playing nine for Exeter – is shouting, ‘Watch the front peel, watch the front peel.’
“We were going down the front and I’m thinking, ‘Ah, they’re well teed up for this, your man is shouting it out,’ but we went for it anyway and peeled down the front.
“I was hoping he’d see me coming around and push off to go for Rónan [Kelleher] and I’d go through and have an easier set-up for the next phase. But he gets a shoulder on me, I play it to Ronan, he makes a good carry up the field but we were just slow getting to that breakdown.
“We know how good Luke Cowan-Dickie is at getting to the ball and we miss the first cleanout on it. I got back off the ground, I’m a bit late, but the damage is done at that stage.
“If we had got the ball away there, we would have been in a really good spot. After a linebreak, teams tend to get very narrow and honeypot back towards the ball where there’s normally a lot of danger. We were hoping to play with width and we might have had them a few phases later if we had held onto the ball.
“That bit of missed detail and accuracy is something that kept them in it longer than we should have.”
We also saw Conan’s passing skills used on second phase of a Leinster lineout play in this game.
“It’s always great to get your hands on the ball in those set plays where you have options.
“I just love when the coaches say I’m going to be in the centre of a move, you love when they’re making moves around your position.”
Base of the scrum
Conan has been increasingly active off the base of the Leinster scrum this season, using his dynamic carrying but also passing at times.
“There has been a big change in the work at the base of the scrum,” he says. “A lot of that is down to Robin McBryde, who has come in and said, ‘We’re underutilising this, if you do it in a certain way, you have a free run at the opposition 10 and it’s an easy few metres.’
“It’s something I love doing because it gets the ball in your hands, you know you’ll have lots of time and running full pace at someone.
“We used to just do it predominantly for exits but now we do it anywhere on the pitch, which is great.
“If you look at someone like Conor Murray, he goes really hard at the opposition number eight and nine at the base of the scrum, so we practise a lot.
“Myself, Caelan [Doris], and the scrum-halves, get together after training, go through the plays, get someone to put on a bit of pressure and train it as if it’s a match-scenario. It’s a cheap turnover if the opposition scrum-half can get into you there.
“It’s definitely something that we’ve spent a lot more time on recently and I feel it’s a great string to my bow and for Caelan and the other guys playing at number eight.”
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