ANDREW CONWAY CLOCKED a number of milestones as he returned to rugby at the weekend after an injury nightmare that dragged on for 16 months and ruled him out of Ireland’s success in New Zealand last year and this year’s World Cup.

The Dublin native has been with Munster for a decade but also missed out on their URC title success last season. But he’s back and marked his 150^th appearance for the province with his 50^th try.

But the most important milestone in Saturday’s 34-21 success over the Sharks at Thomond Park was much closer to home.

“It was my daughter’s first time to see me play rugby. She wouldn’t know what’s going on, she is just gone 18 months.

“It has been a long time coming obviously. I missed all last year. There have been some really, really tough days in that and I have leaned heavily on my wife, my family, some of my close friends in here in Munster. Cathal Sheridan, who is our sports psychologist, has been particularly brilliant with me over some tough days.

“Damien Mordan, our physio, has been particularly brilliant with me, supporting me through those tough days and being an ear, being a voice, an opinion and non-judgemental, just riding the rollercoaster of professional sports with the athletes and it is so important because it is highs and lows constantly and you do your best to try and remain as neutral as you can, but obviously that is next to impossible.

“To have a good day on my first day back is something I will look back on and be quite happy with.

“As first competitive matches go in a long time it was brilliant. It was against a tough team, a good team. It was at home in Thomond, It was a lovely evening,” said the 32-year old.

Graham Rowntree left him on for all 80 minutes of the season’s opener and it was a shock to the system for the winger who won the last of his 30 caps against England in the 2022 Six Nations.

“You prepare for 80. It was not a conversation I had with physios or medics or coaches. When you step out on the field you are ready to play 80 and that has to be the mindset,” Conway said.

“It was a tough first half, I tell you, a shock to the system, but a good shock to the system. There is a weird, kinda sick feeling of being in that dark place that over time you miss and you strive to be in and you only get there by putting in a lot of hard work, so that is where the mind goes in those dark places, you don’t get it for free.”

The objective now is to hopefully stay injury-free and get a string of games and see where that takes him but he has been through a fairly torrid time over the past 16 months or so.

“There were some very tough days. You get used to these things I suppose. The first missing out on was New Zealand, I suppose, missing out on that tour which is tough,” added Conway.

“Then it went into some big days with some of my good mates, like I was up at Conor Murray’s 100^th (cap) and he’d be one of my best pals. You are there in the stand and I am there to support him, but it is tough because you want to be in the changing room with them, you want to be in the trenches with them.

“Leading into the Grand Slam again it is not nice watching on, there is no point in denying it and I think if anyone does deny it, if they are a competitive person they are not giving you the full story.

“Within the Munster season, within those little mini disappointments you do get used to them, it’s like anything in life, you look on the bright side of things, you use your perspective of what is going on, what you are grateful for at home.

“You use life perspective what goes on elsewhere. In the grand scheme of things me having a knee injury that I am missing a bit of professional sport, it’s not ideal professionally but life goes on. You have some really good days and you are in the process of rehabbing and rehabbing. 

“I was chasing the World Cup, I kinda got obsessed with doing everything I could to put my hand up for the World Cup, knowing that it was a long shot, but that gave me the fuel to drive every day at a level I had actually never trained at before.”