FRESHLY CHANGED INTO his post-game team suit and with the stadium emptying, Dave Kilcoyne is full of chat. There was a point, not too long ago, when the 34-year-old feared days like this were behind him.
In the week leading up to Ireland’s Six Nations meeting with France in Dublin, Kilcoyne detailed his struggle to recover from a nerve injury following surgery last spring. At one point during the process, the word retirement entered the conversation.
It’s been a long, painful road back, but on Saturday Kilcoyne, alongside James Ryan and Andrew Porter, led Ireland out at Aviva Stadium to mark the trio winning their 50th Test caps.
“It means the world to me to be honest,” said Kilcoyne.
“You grow up as the old cliché everyone wants to play for Ireland. All my family were there today in the audience. And it really does mean the world to me.
“Faz (Andy Farrell) put on a little presentation for me, Ports and James Ryan during the week and you know they just talked about how special it is to get 50 caps.
“I always backed myself and to get 50 caps today, it really does mean a lot to me. It means more to me probably than my first cap because of what I’ve had to go through in the last year.”
Kilcoyne explained the complications around the injury last week; a neck problem which required surgery and briefly left him with no power in his arm. Speaking on Saturday, he added a more detail and admitted to fearing his playing days may have been coming to a premature end.
“I was going into the operation and they didn’t know if it was cartilage or bone and they didn’t know if they would be able to get it out the back (of the neck), that they might have to go through the front and if he had to go in the front he would have had to fuse my discs, but I had already damaged one of those, the one below my C6 and C7 so it would have required a double fusion and that would have retired me.
“Thankfully that didn’t happen. Ashley Poynton is an incredible surgeon and he was able to do what was necessary. Even after the operation it wasn’t plain sailing.
“I came back but I was still powered down and I was going in week on week testing my arm and nothing improving. I lost eight or nine kilos just by not being able to do weights and you do question if it will ever come back.”
Thankfully, that power eventually returned.
“I wouldn’t wish a nerve injury on anyone,” Kilcoyne added.
“With a nerve, there is no timeline. It can be two weeks, two months or two years. It’s very unnerving so I am proud of the resilience I showed to stick with it and the Munster rehab group who kept me at it. So the 50 means the world to me.”
To do it surrounded by friends meant even more. Kilcoyne and Conor Murray go back a long way together. On Saturday they both played their part in another huge Ireland win, with Murray putting a difficult week off the pitch behind him after his father Gerry, was hospitalised after being involved in a collision with a truck while cycling.
“Me and Conor grew up together through the academy, sub-academy, lived together, kind of broke through the same era with Munster,” Kilcoyne explained.
“He’d be one of my best friends and it just shows the resilience in the man to play the way he did in the circumstances that he has going on in his personal life.
You wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but he came in and he was just himself. Faz addressed it after the win, just how impressed he was with his character. It really tests someone’s character to be able to play in an international game like that at that capacity and to play like that when he has such a tough home situation going on.
“I think full credit to Conor Murray. He probably hasn’t been getting the rub of the green in terms of selection down below (Munster), rugby’s peaks and troughs. I thought he played excellent last week as well against Wales. I was delighted for Conor and a credit to his character.”
Kilcoyne hopes more big days await down the track. The Munster prop was part of the Ireland squad at the 2019 World Cup and would love another crack at winning the big one later this year.
“Japan was a good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it but what Faz has created in here with this environment is just different. It’s like something I’ve never experienced, I don’t think any of us have.
“He’s incredible at getting the right people in. He’s got them in and created an amazing environment for players to try and be themselves. You bounce into work wanting to get better every day, wanting to help your teammates and it’s the best squad I have been involved in.
“We’re building nicely down in Munster at the moment, we’re getting on track down there as well, so both parties are in a great space and I’m loving the rugby at the moment.”
Getting the right people in is only part of the picture, of course. Nothing is more effective at keeping spirits up than winning matches – especially winning in style.
“We broke into groups this morning, into forwards and backs, and Paulie (O’Connell) just spoke to the forwards about him and Fogs (John Fogarty) had been chatting and saying how envious they almost were about how this Irish team is and the level we are at, how aligned we are in the Irish game plan and how down the path we are with it.
“It’s exactly where we want to be. You speak to any of the players in there and they will say they have never seen anything like it. It is just incredible to be a part of it. The sky is the limit for it.”
