THE FULL-TIME WHISTLE went and Jack Conan soaked it all in. The Ireland back row had been a long time waiting for this. The birth of his daughter, Remi, saw him sit out last year’s summer tour to South Africa before a hamstring problem ruled him out of the November Tests.

Now he was back and in thick of it, making a series of impactful plays in a 30-minute outing off the bench in Ireland’s 27-22 defeat of England. To make such a positive, winning return made what came next all the sweeter. Saturday allowed Conan experience a moment he’d long imagined, as seven-month-old Remi attended an Ireland game for the first time.

“It’s huge, It’s something I always thought about, something I loved when I was younger, other lads having their kids there and to finally have that be me and have my daughter there was incredible,” Conan said.

She’s gone to two Leinster games and I got injured in both of them and came off early, luckily she’s started off well in the green jersey.”

Conan was central to a significant effort from the Ireland bench, with the Leinster player, Dan Sheehan and Jack Crowley all making a case to start against Scotland at Murrayfield. When it’s put to Conan the impact from Ireland’s reinforcements was similar to that of South Africa’s ‘bomb squad’, he stops short of revealing the label Leinster have put on their own power-packed bench this season. 

“It was a different name for it, not a bomb squad, I’ll have to come back to you on that one. RG [Snyman] and Jacques [Nienaber] were driving that one, so I can’t remember what it was called. It’s slip my mind at the moment, maybe it’s not PG enough to say!”

The back rower’s first involvement was a lineout win moments after entering the action. It helped settle him into the game and soon he was carrying hard and throwing his body into English jerseys, finishing with five punchy carries and seven tackles.

The pick of the bunch was his break which kick-started the move for Ireland’s fourth try, finished by Sheehan. Conan peeled off a lovely slip pass from Sheehan inside his own half and surged forward to carry Ireland to the England 40. As the space opened up before him, Conan had just two England defenders between him and the tryline, but never thought about going for glory himself.

Absolutely not! I don’t have that in me. You have to know your limitations. A piece of me did think that if I chip it over him and catch it it will look incredible. But I’d never done that before and that probably wasn’t the time to do it.”

Instead the move was emphatically finished by Sheehan in the corner, the hooker getting his hands on the ball three times during the play – releasing Conan, firing a sharp pass wide to Lowe and then taking the return to score in the corner. It was real quality from a player who only recently returned from an ACL injury.

“He’s worked so hard and was off doing boxing and other things for his footwork,” Conan explained.

“He was rehabbing in the early hours of the morning and then come back in later in the day for double sessions. He is in the best shape of his life and running incredible speeds having not run for such a long while.

“More than anything it’s his mentality. When you’re not playing for such a long period of time it is so hard to just come back and hit your straps off the bat. He had the 60 minutes for Leinster against Stormers last weekend and now this and it’s like he was never away. That is such a difficult thing to do.

“I’m actually underselling it to say he just rocked up and did that. The mental and physical work is unreal. I don’t think there’s many athletes in any sport could do that. I think he’s a bit of an outlier in that.”

Sheehan was superb on his return to the Ireland team. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

It all fed into a hugely positive day’s work for the squad, who improved on their frustrating November outings while suggesting there is still more to come.

Conan felt he could see a big performance coming as the squad prepared for the tournament at their pre-Six Nations camp in Portugal, referencing the play that led to Tadhg Beirne scoring Ireland’s third try.

“One of the moves we ran there, where Lowey makes the break up the middle, didn’t work at all during the week. I said it to Robbie [Henshaw], ‘I guarantee that will work in the games’ because when you are training, lads that know what is going to happen (and) they will cover that space.

“Lowey bursts up the middle, Beirney is on his outside and gets in so the training has been really difficult over in Portugal. We enjoyed our time off and it is important to build the connections because you have a long period of time without seeing each other and there is always new people coming in.” 

Next stop, Murrayfield. There will be calls to promote some of the Ireland bench to the starting team, but Conan just wants to be involved in any way he can.

“I’d carry the water if I felt I could make a difference for the team,” he added.

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“I’m glad I got a decent stint. When you’re coming off the bench, you want an opportunity to make an impact and other than getting smashed into touch by Cadan Murley I felt like I did well. Lads were giving me savage abuse for that after, Lowey in particular.

“I absolutely loved it. I hadn’t played (for Ireland) since 16 March last year. Eleven-odd months.

“I was unbelievably excited to get back. It’s so special, the group, the atmosphere, the culture, it’s incredible. It’s something that’s been honed and orchestrated by the management, Si, Faz, everyone. Paulie, Fogs, Goodie, Catty as well and it’s just a special place to be.

“I’ve been bouncing in every day. It’s an incredible privilege. When you get a bit older, you realise that probably most of your good days are behind you. I just want to make the most of every chance I get and I feel like I did that today, which was important to me.”