Murray Kinsella Reports from Sydney

PERFORMANCE COACH GARY Keegan’s old connections came in handy for the Lions as they prepared for their second Test win against the Wallabies.

Keegan, who works closely with Andy Farrell with Ireland and now the Lions, goes a long way back with Irish boxing icon Katie Taylor.

He was the high performance director of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association when Taylor began to make a name for herself as an amateur, helping to guide the early stages of her career.

So earlier this week, as Farrell’s Lions prepared for what they knew could be a decisive game against Australia in Melbourne, Keenan got onto his old friend. Taylor’s video went down brilliantly with the Lions squad and proved prescient in terms of how the second Test unfolded.

“It was unbelievably poignant and powerful,” said Lions and Ireland number eight Jack Conan after the last-gasp 29-26 win over the Wallabies.

“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.”

Conan hails from Bray, where Taylor is also from, so the video was particularly special for him.

“Massively, huge,” said Conan. “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 leaned on as well, because we knew that Australia are a hugely proud nation and they showed it today in spades.

“They were unbelievable, they really were, but we just stuck in it for 80 minutes and just incredibly proud of the effort from the lads.

Katie Taylor celebrates her recent win against Amanda Serrano. Gary Carr / INPHO Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO

“I know things didn’t click and we weren’t flowing properly, but we were getting off the line, trying to hit people, trying to make it count every chance we got. And I think we did that and that’s why we got the result in the end.”

It wasn’t only Conan and the big group of Irish Lions who were impressed with Taylor’s message.

Her words hit the mark with the rest of the squad.

“Lads absolutely loved it because 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,” said Conan.

“It was unbelievably poignant, it was class. It really hit home for us, it was brilliant.”

Conan was standing outside the Lions’ dressing room with two cans of Guinness in his hands – “Sorry, the cans are not good, lads” – as he got his head around winning a series with the Lions.

He played all three Tests on the 2021 tour of South Africa but the Lions lost that one and there were no crowds due to the pandemic. This trip to Australia has been altogether different.

He revealed that the Lions’ training session on Thursday ahead of the second Test was “pretty shocking” and felt that possibly fed into their up-and-down performance at the MCG, but all that mattered to him was that the tourists had won.

Conan joked that as a Leinster man he usually comes out on the wrong side of dramatic finishes like the one in Melbourne, so he was thrilled that his long-time team-mate Hugo Keenan, who is nicknamed ‘Barry,’ was the man to seal the series.

“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,” said Conan.

Conan with his daughter, Remi, and wife, Ali. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

“No, delighted for Barry, I probably would have dropped it like the other one [in the first half]… no, that was knocked out of my hands, lads!

“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’s wife and daughter have been in Australia to support him, while his twin sister and her husband also made it, along with a big group of Conan’s friends.

“They’re on a proper stag do, some craic,” said Conan. “I met one of them earlier who flew in from Singapore and all the lads were already in the pub at half ten [in the morning] enjoying it and I was like, ‘f*cking b*stards, I’d love to be there’.

“It’s great doing the lap afterwards and seeing so many familiar faces.”

His friends had an early start in the pub but Conan is now a Lions series winner.

“You can’t take that away from us,” said Conan with clear joy before wandering off to find the rest of the Lions so his celebrations could continue.