FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT. And Jack Conan has made it is business to make good ones.
In February, the explosive young back row was quickest to react when a ball squirted out of a five-metre scrum and scrambled his way to the try-line in Cardiff.
That was four minutes in to his first cap as a senior Leinster player.
Now 22, he walks in to his first media obligation with his province and thrusts out a hand to greet the diminutive reporters.
There’s barely a moment’s hesitation in his answers. He’s as confident in front of a microphone as he is with the ball in hand. Midway through November, his thick ode to Tom Selleck on his upper lip helps give off the sense of a much more experienced pro.
“Matt’s just a bit jealous that my moustache is nicer than his,” he says after his head coach had craned his neck to tease him on the way past in the corridor.
With such a comfortable demeanour off the field, it’s little wonder that Kevin McLaughlin was moved to mark out the former St Gerard’s schoolboy as a natural successor to Jamie Heaslip at the back of the scrum.
Conan brushed the praise aside with “nice words” and “we’ll have to wait and see about that,” yet while he states that gaining more experience is his overriding goal for the season ahead, before he leaves he’ll make it clear than he’s not keeping anyone’s jersey warm against Treviso this weekend.
“With the lads away, it’s a good opportunity for me.
“I don’t want to just fill in when they’re gone. I want to be a constant player throughout the season. I want to always be there or thereabouts when the squad’s being picked. I’m not just going to hand over the jersey easily.
“They’re great lads and, obviously, a lot more experienced than me. Competition is what makes the team as good as it can be, so I’m always going to compete as hard as I can for the jersey in training and on match day.”
Since that debut nine months ago, Conan has won five more caps, all of which came this season. Like that February outing, his most recent chances in the starting line-up have come within the international window, when all Pro12 sides reach down to depth chart to see how the back-ups perform under pressure.
“Smaller numbers, the training is quicker, it’s sharper. But for Leinster Rugby the most important people are the people who are here right now, who are able to play. We can’t worry that lads are missing we just have to get on with the job and get on with the next game which is always the most important one.”
With Dominic Ryan the latest Leinster back row to join the international fold, Conan is aiming to follow in the footsteps of ‘Dippy’, Rhys Ruddock and Jordi Murphy at some stage. That’s a little bit further down the track at the minute and Conan, like any experienced professional, insists his sole focus is on the short-term.
“It’s a great experience to play with [Ruddock, Ryan and Murphy]. They’re all way more experienced than I am, so I’m just learning day in, day out with them and trying to roll with the punches and stay with them and just enjoy it as much as I can.”
He adds: “For me, the one thing is I want to get experience. I think you grow as a player when you play as much as you can. There’s always going to be a few things to work on, but we’ll take it day by day and work on the small things. At the top level it’s all about the tiny margins, arriving early and things like that…”
Things like backing up first impressions.
