THIS TIME LAST year, life was looking good for Gavin Thornbury. The Connacht lock was playing the best rugby of his career, his form leading to suggestions he was in line to step up to the international scene.
Then the brakes were slammed. The 6’9″, 116kg second row was struggling with a shoulder injury, and action needed to be taken to rectify the issue. Little did he know he would end up being stuck on the sidelines for 11 long, frustrating months.
“Every day for 11 months I wished I could play a game,” Thornbury says.
“It was meant to be a 12-week injury and week 10 of it I had a setback, and every couple of months there was a setback again.
“I’d start doing a rugby session and there would be a setback and it would be another couple of months. It was incredibly frustrating. Luckily here I was surrounded by so many good people, my physios were unbelievable, the S&C, Barry O’Brien was incredible, kept me going pretty much.”
The timing and nature of Thornbury’s injury made it all the more frustrating. The former Blackrock man describes the initial problem as a ‘wear and tear’ issue which just proved to be more complicated than initially envisioned.
Just as his stock was rising, it took him out of the picture for the guts of a season.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. You just want to play and help the squad and especially with the coaches coming in, Pete (Wilkins) stepping up and the two lads (Colm Tucker and Mossy Lawler) coming in and Dewald (Senekal) coming in as well, you want to be involved. Pre-season was incredibly exciting, everyone was buzzing to get started and you are kind off… I was there and I got hit with that.
I just wanted to keep playing. I was in a good run of form and I was loving playing. I played 19 games I think last season, which is the most I’ve played in a year. I was loving it, playing week-in, week-out, and then when I had to go so long without a game it was tough. It was very tough, to be honest, but thankfully now I’ve come through the other end and I’ll be a stronger person for it.”
Connacht did their best to keep a key player as involved as they could. While the influential second row was nursing his shoulder at the start of the season, the province hired a new forwards coach in Dewald Senekal, with the South African making sure to include Thornbury in his planning for the year ahead.
“From the start, he kind of kept me in the loop and he worked a lot with me on the way he saw the game, the way I saw the game,” Thornbury continues.
“So I was pretty much as involved as I could be without actually playing, and I’m really grateful for that. It’s something I wanted to do. I wanted to keep involved, I wanted to see how the lads are going and I wanted to have an opinion, basically.
“Dewald took that and helped me a lot. He’s helped me a lot around thinking about the game and seeing the game in a different way, because obviously when you’re not playing you’ve got to look at it in a different light and that’s exactly what he helped me to do.
It’s almost like you’re looking at it through the coaching lens as opposed to the playing lens, which is a really good experience. Then once you’re back playing, It was nice to see it from a different view and get an understanding of what the coaches are seeing, as opposed to just seeing it as a player.
“He (Senekal) has been very good to me this year, keeping me involved. I was hopefully able to help some of the younger lads, had that little bit of experience with them, going through games and going through lineouts with them.
“It was really enjoyable, you got yourself connected and I know there were times, even myself during the 11 months, when you can feel disconnected to the squad. You might be on different times in the gym or when you are running, so you might not be as connected to the squad as you would like.
“So just being able to add a bit, or have an opinion here and there does keep you connected. You need that when you are going through that lengthy period out.”
Thornbury made his long-awaited return to action against Benetton earlier this month, and has slowly been building his minutes up since; 30 against the Italian side, 76 over two legs against Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16.
He’s set to get more gametime when Connacht visit the Sharks this weekend as the province look to make it two wins from two on their mini-tour to South Africa. Unfortunately for Thornbury there isn’t much road left in Connacht’s season, but an Ireland tour to New Zealand is on the horizon.
“I think at the moment I just have to focus on each day as it comes,” Thornbury says of his international ambitions.
“Coming back from such a long injury, you have to focus on what you are doing, getting used to being back playing rugby and getting up to speed. That’s all I’m focusing on, literally trying to get a little bit better each day now.
“It’s a massive challenge (this weekend). I think it’s a lot more set-piece based. You know you are coming up against really strong scrums, really strong mauls, especially this weekend. You’ve got to be pretty much perfect every time you go to a set-piece, otherwise you’re going to know all about it.
“So it’s a big challenge for us, and we’re looking forward to it. You can’t shy away from it, you’ve got to run into it head first so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
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