WHILE HIS TEAMMATES were off battling the Springboks in South Africa or hitting the beach on holidays, Jack Conan settled into a very different type of summer.
Conan and his wife, Ali, welcomed daughter Remi in July, days before Ireland’s opening Test against the Springboks. The timing saw the Leinster backrower sit out the tour and instead enjoy into his first summer as a parent.
“The best thing that’s ever happened,” is how Conan sees it. “There was no partying about in Mykonos or things you might be doing during your time off.
Things change pretty quickly, and definitely make you realise what’s important in life and what’s not. I think it’s kind of made me screw my head on a little bit more in some regards, so I feel a bit more centered, which is good.
“Before the baby, I probably would have found it hard to go home and switch off and not be thinking about how I trained, or the game at the weekend, or meetings or reviewing training footage.
“It definitely makes you compartmentalise things a little bit better and say, ‘that’s that done for now’ and I’ve got a more important thing in life at home to look after, so I probably have a bit more balance now, which is good.”
Having featured in all five of Ireland’s Six Nations fixtures, Conan looked a safe bet for the South Africa tour but made himself unavailable for selection in order to be home for the birth. It proved to an easy conversation with head coach Andy Farrell.
“Andy’s a huge family man, and he put massive importance on that, even when we’re in camp. So he told me to do what’s right for me and my family.
“We were supposed be due two days before the second Test, and then ended up going two weeks early. So there was a brief period where, if something had gone wrong with one of the lads in South Africa, I might have gone across. Thankfully now I didn’t have to sit my wife down and have that conversation.
“I was sitting at home watching the second Test, and it was really one of those things that if the lads went out there and won by 30 points, you’d be like ‘brilliant’, but the fact it was such a dramatic late finish, that would have been unbelievable to be part of. For Frawls [Ciaran Frawley] to knock over that drop goal in the 81st minute, I was delighted for the lads after such a long and tough season, especially with what’s happened here [Leinster].”
What happened was, of course, a heartbreaking Champions Cup final defeat to Toulouse and a bruising URC semi-final loss at the Bulls, leaving Leinster picking up the pieces of a third straight season without a trophy.
The pressure is on to end that run this time around, with their new URC campaign starting away to Edinburgh tonight [KO 7.35pm, TG4/ Premier Sports].
With November internationals also on the horizon and a Lions tour to aim for next summer, Conan is feeling fresh as he prepares to jump back onto the hamster wheel.
Last year the 32-year-old battled a foot injury coming out of the World Cup and had issues with his calf across the back end of the season. With his body right after an extended off-season, he’s raring to go, adding that Leinster have been understanding in helping him adjust to life as a new parent.
“Some days you will come in, you know, kind of staring at the wall. You don’t know where you are, and they’re like, right, just come back and do gym later on, go have a coffee, relax for half an hour or something like that, and fit it in during lunch or something, don’t be burning the candle at both ends.
Sure most lads are in the same boat. There’s been lots of babies in the last few months! So I think people are fairly understanding.”
Tonight Conan is back to the day job, captaining Leinster in their first outing of the new season.
“There’s obviously a lot of lads to come back over the next few weeks being drip fed at different times, different internationals… We don’t want to feel our way into the season and think two or three weeks into it, ok, now we’re hitting our straps. We want to be there from minute one on the get go.
“So we’ll be thinking about starting fast and ripping into the game and into the season.”
