Jack Conan: 'Poignant' Katie Taylor message inspired Lions win

RTÉ News​

7 hours ago

Jack Conan has revealed how a message from Katie Taylor helped inspire the British and Irish Lions as they wrapped up their series with a game to spare against the Wallabies.
The Lions staged an epic comeback to defeat Australia on Saturday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, coming from 18 points down to win 29-26 after Hugo Keenan's try with the final play of the game.
Ahead of the Test, scrum coach John Fogarty spoke about the inspirational presentation from former Lions captain Martin Johnson, who handed out the game jerseys.
And Conan says they were also given a motivational message from one of Ireland's greatest ever sportspeople.
"We had a video from Katie Taylor earlier in the week and it was unbelievably poignant and powerful," he said.
"It spoke about being prepared to win with skill, but be ready to win by will. I think that was something that summed up today massively because we were not at our best at all."
From one Bray native to another, that message from the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, and current undisputed world lightweight champion struck a chord with Conan in particular.
"Someone to come from the town I'm from, I'm incredibly proud of where I come from and I know Katie is as well.
"She's gone on to achieve incredible feats in the boxing world.
"And to be such a superstar and be just incredibly humble and driven and knock it out of herself is something that we kind of leant on as well, because we knew that Australia are a hugely proud nation and they showed it today in spades.
"Lads absolutely loved it, and it meant a lot to me being from the same place and seeing her on the world stage, but I think everyone loved it, even the English and the Scottish boys and the Welsh boy, it resonated with everyone.
"It was unbelievably poignant, it was class. It really hit home for us, it was brilliant."
Conan had the best seat in the house for the winning try from Keenan, outside the full-back's left shoulder when he got the ball from scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.
On Saturday night, Andy Farrell admitted he was calling for Keenan to pass the ball to his team-mate and take advantage of the mismatch, with Conan standing out opposite wing Max Jorgensen.
And the number 8, who could have scored the opening try of the game but for a ball-and-all tackle from James Slipper, joked that he was robbed of a career highlight by his Leinster team-mate.
"I was delighted for him, now in saying that, I would have liked it more if he gave me the ball on the edge and I scored the try.
"No, delighted for Barry [Keenan's nickname]. I probably would have dropped it like the other one... no, it was knocked out of my hands.
"He [Keenan] had a bit of a rocky start to the campaign with the sickness that derailed him for a while and it's a testament to his professionalism and staying in it.
"I was shouting for it, but Barry goes and scores a try so I've no complaints. If he bottled it there in that moment I would have killed him and kicked the arse off him afterwards, but that was great."
Conan, who turns 34 on Tuesday, had an all-action evening at the MCG, with a combined 31 carries and tackles, the most of any Lions player in any Test across the last five tours.
The team struggled badly at times in the first half, with Conan attributing some of that to Thursday's training session, where he said the team were "pretty shocking".
The inconsistency of both sides made for an epic contest for the neutral, and Conan says clinching the series in such a way makes the victory even sweeter.
"As a Leinster man you're normally on the other end of it where you don't win them so it was nice to be on the other side of it for once.
"We were not at our best by any measure, but physically the lads dug in unbelievably well.
"I think the celebrations and the craic and changing room, if we went out and we won by 20, it wouldn't be the same.
"Everyone's just over the moon. To be part of a Lions winning series team is just incredibly special. I feel incredibly humbled and honoured to be part of it all.
"Something that will go down in history, they won't be writing the history books about how s**t we were, but they'll say that we won and that's all that matters.
"You can't take these things away from people and go down in history. I know people don't have the best things to say about Australia but I thought they were class today, they played above themselves.
"We saw Valetini, big Willie Skelton and come back into the side. They were unbelievable, they made a huge difference and we struggled with it at times, a little bit high in the contacts, a little bit soaking, whatever else but it doesn't matter, we got there in the end didn't we?"
As for the celebrations, they will roll into the start of the week.
The team were given Sunday off as usual, while they have also been allowed some extra time to 'rest and recover' on Monday, before hitting the ground on Tuesday, looking to seal the clean sweep in Sydney.
"Yeah it's class, just the feeling afterwards, the celebrations, 'Big Tadge' [Tadhg] Furlong was giving it 90 on the sideline which was class and it was just unreal.
"Part of a Lions winning series is just so special, to have played two 80 minutes, I'm not sure if I'll be playing next week after my performance but we'll see what happens.
"It's great doing the lap afterwards and seeing so many familiar faces like all the lads' partners, family, everything like that is class. And then seeing my wife and then all my mates, my twin sister's here as well with her husband and they've been digging in with the baby duties as well which has been great.
"So you couldn't wish for anything more compared to four years ago when there wasn't a sinner in the stadium, getting a proper rattle out of it now is just unreal."