EVEN THOUGH THIS is Jack Conan’s second World Cup, it feels like it’s going to be a completely new experience.
Back in 2019, the Ireland back row was carrying an injury for several months before the trip to Japan. Conan had been dealing with a stress fracture in his foot and had to take it relatively easy on the training front in the build-up to that World Cup.
Looking back now, he knows he was on borrowed time. Ireland’s physios and medical staff did all they could to make sure he was available and Conan made the final squad. He featured in Ireland’s opening win over Scotland, playing most of the game off the bench.
He was pencilled in to start against hosts Japan a week later but then his foot finally gave in. World Cup over.
“Incredibly gutting,” is how Conan remembers it. He watched on from the sideline as Ireland were beaten by the Brave Blossoms. He flew home the day after.
“I definitely feel like I haven’t had the opportunity to perform on the world stage. Obviously, I’ve played in the Six Nations and stuff, New Zealand last year, and whatever else, but the World Cup is definitely something special.
“With my age profile, I’m not sure I will be knocking around in four years’ time.”
He doesn’t regret the decision to give that 2019 World Cup everything he could, despite the sense that his foot would eventually not hold up to the rigours.
“I was happy to take the risk of missing an extended period of time with the opportunity of potentially going to the World Cup,” says Conan.
“Now in saying that, when it went and I was out for six months, I was kind of like, ‘Jeez, did I make the right decision there?
“I don’t look back and I don’t regret it. It was an incredible experience, even the two or three weeks I was there. It was an incredible honour playing in the World Cup, but there were definitely two sides to the coin.”
By the time the rest of the Ireland squad limped home a few weeks later, Conan had already started into what proved to be a gruelling rehabilitation period with the foot issue.
Indeed, he had to wait a long time to wear the green jersey again.
“It was a big thing to overcome,” he says. “The injury itself, there was no guarantee I would come back from it.
“There are a lot of lads who retired from the same injury I had. Not that it ever got to that point, but you knew it was going to be a physically and mentally testing journey from the outset.
“That was late September and my first game back was supposed to be in South Africa with Leinster [in 2020] and that was the week that Covid hit so I didn’t end up playing with Ireland for 18 months, until 2021 when I came off the bench against Italy.
“That was my first game back so there was definitely a period in that time where you think, ‘Jesus, it’s so difficult to get back’. I had the tough run with injury and the whole world was locked down so I wasn’t feeling too sorry for myself but it was a long journey and times when you thought you won’t get back in.”
The chance to have a happier World Cup experience explains Conan’s excitement to be involved in Ireland’s first warm-up game against Italy this weekend in Dublin.
He was pleased with his personal form at the end of last season, having bounced back from a disappointing showing for Ireland against Italy to impress in the closing rounds of the Six Nations. Though Leinster tasted disappointment in the finale of their season, Conan was happy with how he ended the campaign.
Still, he recognises that the pressure is on from the outset, with plenty of competition for back row places in Andy Farrell’s squad.
He says Ireland have had a “vastly different” pre-season this summer than back in 2019 when they “probably got a lot of things wrong.” Conan has also come to have a greater appreciation of the opportunity ahead.
“Not that I wasn’t grateful four years ago, maybe I just didn’t grasp the magnitude of playing for Ireland in a World Cup,” says Conan.
“I think because of the experiences I had in Japan, they definitely make me appreciate the position I’m in at the moment.
“Hopefully, I can take that into the next few weeks and it definitely means a hell of a lot more to me now.”
