‘It Was A Nice Way To Find Out’ – Conan On His Lions Selection

Following training with Leinster last Thursday, Conan decided to head home to watch the live Lions squad announcement on TV. Whether it was good or bad news, wife Ali and baby Remi would be there for him.

The couple’s 10-month-old daughter was due to go down for a nap, so Jack paused the television briefly and then unwittingly had it on a delay close to the announcement. That left the door open for his good friend Murray to win the title of ‘fastest fingers first’.

Denying that he had had any tip-offs about being picked in the 38-strong squad, Conan said: “You’ve no clue. You find out like everyone else. I’m telling you now, there’s no insider trading or anything like that!

“I was watching at home on Thursday. Everyone kind of legged it out of training (at Leinster) because lads didn’t want to be around.

“Went home, and my wife had to put our baby to bed, and I paused the TV. And then I went to watch it and I played it.

“I was just chatting to (former team-mate) Ed Byrne, and I put the phone down, and then I picked it up right before the names got announced, and all I got was a message from Conor Murray, being like, ‘Yes!’, with a love heart, love heart, love heart…

“I just turned to my wife and went, ‘Oh, I got picked!’. Then I put then phone down and watched it because obviously it was a minute ahead after pausing it and I hadn’t realised it.

“It was a nice way to find out from one of your mates texting you so, yeah, class.”

The Bray man is already Lion number 839 having toured South Africa with them in 2021. He played all 80 minutes of the 22-17 first Test win over the Springboks, and an hour each of the concluding two clashes as the Lions lost the series 2-1.

His form with both province and country has been top class this season, stepping up to captain Leinster on a number of occasions and making an impressive return to Test action with three tries in five appearances for Ireland.

He showed his qualities as an impact player and his versatility during the Guinness Men’s Six Nations. He started at both number 8 and blindside flanker, and had three run-outs off the bench, most memorably during the first round victory at home to England.

Conan has said that becoming a Lion four years ago and featuring in the Test series gave him ‘a lot of confidence and self-belief’. Even still, it was really not until he saw him name on the screen last Thursday afternoon that he could relax.

“When Ollie Chessum came up (as the forwards were being announced), I was like, ‘C-h, C-o’. I was just in a moment of panic like, ‘Oh my God, have I missed it?’.

“Thank God my missus is a bit more on the ball than me. She was like, ‘Nah, you’re afterwards, you idiot!’, and I was like, ‘Thank God!’.

The 32-year-old admitted that it was a week of ‘mixed emotions’, however, as Leinster had a difficult few days to get through in the aftermath of their stinging Investec Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints.

The Leinster Rugby Awards Ball on Tuesday might have been a welcome distraction, but the combination of 12 Leinster players earning Lions call-ups, and a record 76-5 URC win over Zebre Parma, meant Leo Cullen’s men at least saw out out the week with smiles on their faces.

“To be honest, I don’t want another week like that. Monday and Tuesday were pretty grim, a lot of soul searching and stuff,” explained Conan, who captained the province against the Italians after Caelan Doris’ season-ending shoulder injury.

“Honest conversations about how poor we were the weekend before and then we got out, ran around on Monday and tried to bring a bit of craic, a bit of energy to it.

“Tuesday night we had the awards ball, so we got to send the lads off properly, everyone who is leaving. Then obviously Thursday (with the Lions announcement). So kind of a week of mixed emotions, highs and lows, distractions, everything else.

“Then you’ve got to prep to go again (for the Zebre game on Saturday) and make sure that you’re better than you were after last weekend.

“It wouldn’t have been hard to be better than we were after last weekend. A strange old week. I wouldn’t fancy doing it again now.”

After falling just short of making their fourth successive Champions Cup final, Leinster’s hopes of lifting silverware this year now hinge on the BKT United Rugby Championship. The 12-try rout of Zebre confirmed them as top seeds for the play-offs.

They will be hoping to make home advantage count when they host their quarter-final opponents at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, May 31 (kick-off 3pm). The final is scheduled for Saturday, June 14, six days before the Lions’ 1888 Cup match against Argentina at the home of Irish Rugby.

All that Conan and his team-mates will be thinking about is this week’s round 18 duel with Glasgow Warriors. Although it has nothing riding on it for them in terms of the result, another strong performance would give them the ideal springboard into the play-off stage.

“I think it’s important not to look too far ahead. I think the message that I was trying to drive this week was just let’s just deal with the moment right in front of our faces.

“Not worry about trophies or success at the end of the year, because at some stage it becomes a bit of a distraction. So it was, ‘Let’s just go out there and play and enjoy it’, and we definitely enjoyed it (today) even though it was bloody tough out there.

“Jeez, twenty minutes in, I was blowing hard. A different kind of style of game to what we’ve played in the last while.

“So let’s just be where our feet are, be present, take it moment by moment, step by step, and see where we are in five, six weeks’ time. Just don’t worry about anything else,” he added.