Jack Conan solely focused on British and Irish Lions duty just days after URC glory with Leinster
WITH precious little time between lifting the URC trophy and linking up with the Lions, Jack Conan made sure to worry more about care of the dog than the hair of the dog.
Along with the retiring Cian Healy and the injured Caelan Doris — for whom he stood in as team captain — Conan raised Leinster's long-awaited latest piece of silverware last Saturday at Croke Park after the 32-7 final victory over the Bulls.
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Dan Sheehan and captain Jack Conan of Leinster celebrate with the URC trophy after the win over the Bulls
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Jack Conan is solely focused on the Lions after the club season ended in glory
This was cause for celebration but with Conan being one of 12 Blues players selected in the Lions squad for the upcoming trip to Australia, there was never going to be a huge amount of time for him to bask in URC glory.
While he did not feature against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium last night, he was in UCD yesterday morning as a number of Lions players hosted a training session for 90 schoolchildren from right across Ireland.
And pressed on how much time he had to enjoy his province's success, the back-row ace said: 'The afterglow went pretty quickly on Monday morning when you had to pack up for the next eight weeks of your life.
'We had a great few days, it was nice. A few pints on Sunday as well early doors, which was good. I felt fresh enough on Monday morning.
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'I had to go down to Bray at seven in the morning to get the dog. I was home early, so I was being wise.
'Monday was good. We didn't have much to do. We just came in, met everyone and got our gear.
'We had a proper runout here on Tuesday, which was soul-searching stuff. We had to run out the demons.
'You'd love to be playing against Argentina, but it is what it is. Everyone has been training away for the last week without us, so hopefully get a run out soon.'
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Just a few short months before starting all three Tests that the Lions played during their tour of South Africa in 2021, Wicklow native Conan was in the Leinster side for their PRO14 final win over arch rivals Munster at the RDS.
That was the last major title the Blues got their hands on until they collected the URC crown last weekend so Conan, 32, will hope for the same again as he looks to follow up a trophy in blue with a big summer in red.
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There are still some question marks over whether the 2024-25 season will be deemed a success or a failure for Leinster given their latest Champions Cup bid ended in a shock semi-final loss to Northampton Saints at the Aviva Stadium.
Yet even though he acknowledges their defeat to the English Premiership outfit was a difficult one to take, Conan stressed any campaign that sees a team winning a trophy ought to be regarded as a satisfactory one.
He added: 'I think any season where you win something can never be deemed a failure.
'Obviously we want to go well in both competitions. I think if it hadn't been for the performance against Northampton . . . even if we had lost that game but we performed really well, I don't think people would have said much about it.
'The problem is when you are winning most of the time, it papers over cracks a little bit, so we had to have a good hard look at ourselves.
'You get to win a trophy in Croke Park with all your mates.
'At the end of the day, I would have taken that.
'I definitely wouldn't say it was a failure but there's definitely more in this club and in the lads.
'Hopefully a big few years still now ahead of us.'
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