{"id":275094,"date":"2026-02-01T08:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275094\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T08:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:25:09","slug":"jack-conan-back-in-his-element-as-irelands-six-nations-opener-approaches-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275094\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Conan back in his element as Ireland\u2019s Six Nations opener approaches \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Conan<\/a> can always reflect on being an ever-present on two successive British & Irish Lions tours, but as the 2026 Six Nations<\/a> looms into view with Thursday night\u2019s opener in Paris, he is back in his happiest place.<\/p>\n

Many would regard his achievements as a two-two Lion the pinnacle of their careers but while they will always be special to him, his greatest joy is playing for Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Conan articulated why this is so for him and others to a small contingent of the Irish media at their base in The Campus in the Algarve when discussing the oft-debated question of a post-Lions hangover.<\/p>\n

For many, Conan included, this was compounded by going into the November Test window lacking match sharpness. Indeed, for Conan, the game against the All Blacks in Chicago was his first match since the Lions\u2019 third Test in Australia three months previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, physically, because I didn\u2019t get a run out pre-November and then went straight into the internationals, that was quite difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I was trying to tell myself I\u2019m ready, I\u2019ve trained well for the few weeks leading up to it, it\u2019s very difficult to go and have no game time and then straight to the internationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a personal level, I probably felt mentally maybe just not as sharp as I could have been. I was disappointed in how I performed in some of those; not entirety of games, but moments within the game, things I backed myself on probably weren\u2019t at the level they need to be for this group. That was disappointing on a personal level.<\/p>\n

\u201cMentally, playing for the Lions is great and it\u2019s not something I ever thought I\u2019d do, but if I was given the opportunity, if I had to pick playing for Ireland or making the Lions tour, it\u2019s playing for Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the greatest joy, I think, for everyone to be part of this group. It\u2019s an incredible honour to play for the Lions, but for me, playing for Ireland, it doesn\u2019t get any better than that. It\u2019s the thing you grew up thinking about, wanting.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be here now, to be living this dream is unbelievably special, whereas the Lions is not something I ever thought I\u2019d do. Incredibly special, but I\u2019d never looked much further than being in a green jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think mentally I felt a bit of a slump or anything like that, or there wasn\u2019t a lack of motivation coming into November. It was probably just physically a little bit not at the level I would have liked to have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jack Conan comes up against Julien Marchand of France. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Now 33, Conan still has the same sense of thrill about being in the Irish environment as he\u2019s ever had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to take nothing for granted. I\u2019m playing in the backrow \u2013 how many unbelievable backrowers are there across the country? Young lads coming up, you see Bryn Ward training there today. He\u2019s been great, he\u2019s like a duck to water out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, lads injured at home who can\u2019t be here, or other young lads. You look at Brian Gleeson, James McNabney up north, who\u2019s injured and hopefully back soon in the next couple of weeks. Great players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get a bit older, you can never take it for granted because there\u2019s always that cohort of lads that are coming behind you. Obviously, established lads here, Bryn and the likes getting their first experience of it as well. If you don\u2019t make the most of it, there\u2019s always someone waiting in the wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite making his Test debut against Scotland in a pre-World Cup game in August 2015, entering the 2021-22 season Conan had only won 20 caps, since when he\u2019s had anther 35 in the last four-and-a-half seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears ago, it was 2016 or 2017 and I was talking to a mate of mine and he was like, \u2018If you retired in 10 years\u2019 time, how many Ireland caps do you think you\u2019d be happy with?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Jeez, if I got 20 caps it\u2019d be unbelievable\u2019 because I think at that stage I\u2019d probably had two or three maybe. Do you know what I mean? I\u2019d been in and out of camp for years but I hadn\u2019t probably taken my opportunities well enough and I hadn\u2019t been there consistently week-in, week-out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to fast forward a few years and I\u2019ve played 55 times for Ireland, which is unbelievably special. I\u2019m still looking to add to it and get better in here and train hard and I\u2019m fortunate now, my body feels good, the body of work from the last few weeks with Leinster, so I feel match fit. I\u2019m excited for the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said Conan and co are jumping in at the deep end when taking on the champions and favourites in the Stade de France next Thursday night (kick-off 8.10pm Irish time).<\/p>\n

Ireland had won of their best wins in the corresponding Friday night opener two years ago in Marseille, when Conan said they learned the lessons of their defeat in Paris 2022, when they were a little fazed by post-Covid sense of occasion.<\/p>\n

\"JackJack Conan in the Portugal training camp. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

That was the third Championship in a row when the Ireland-France game was effectively a title decider between the top two in the table. Although Ireland finished third behind England on points\u2019 difference last season after allowing them a late bonus point on the opening weekend at the Aviva Stadium, much the same applied last season when France came to Dublin and thumped Ireland 42-27 in round four.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t looked at it yet, but I think more than anything else, it was just the physicality,\u201d said Conan when explaining the reason for that damaging day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably let ourselves down a little bit. A lot of the one-on-one collisions, just giving them easy metres. We know they want to keep the ball alive and if you aren\u2019t winning collisions, it\u2019s very easy to throw it offloads and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not getting any time in the tackle. You\u2019re not getting a point of reference for your defensive set-up to actually get up off the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you let them get over the gain line and you\u2019re missing collisions or you\u2019re a bit slow and they\u2019re on the front foot, you\u2019re constantly backtracking and it\u2019s very difficult to get off and shut them off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t spoken about it yet, but I know the lads who played last year will obviously have that fresh in their mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve changed a whole lot in how they want to play. They\u2019ve probably gotten better at it since then even. It\u2019ll be a big challenge for us defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t stoked that fire yet,\u201d said Conan, who was speaking last Thursday. \u201cA lot of the provinces defend quite similar to Ireland. Obviously, Leinster\u2019s is a little bit different, but there\u2019s just refreshing and going again because defensively we felt like it\u2019s probably the area of the game where we have the most growth in us that we want to get better at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although France have won five of the seven Championship in a post-Lions season and are 13-point favourites to win on Thursday, Conan and co can take encouragement from having beaten France in the recent past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrish people as a society and as a country probably like being the underdogs a little bit,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe know it\u2019s going to be unbelievably tough, but we back ourselves against anyone. It\u2019s a great opportunity between now and then to continue to get better and to put out a good performance out on opening night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Conan can always reflect on being an ever-present on two successive British & Irish Lions tours, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1449,83014,43,15551],"class_list":["post-275094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-jack-conan","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}