Jackman braced for Brive challenge
Bernard Jackman and current Leinster colleagues Eoin Reddan, John Fogarty, Ronnie McCormack and Chris Keane will be joined by Brive’s Damian Browne and Christian Short for a chat about old times in the west of Ireland.
Jackman, who has won nine Irish caps since moving on, speaks with affection of his time in Galway prior to joining up with the current European champions.
He believes Connacht has more than repaid the investment made by the IRFU, explaining: “Fellas go there to get game time and it’s great to have that. There are other opportunities as well to move on, and English and French teams are starting to figure they can get good Connacht guys to move, good players who will play better with quality players around them. My first contract was with Connacht when (Warren) Gatland gave me an opportunity; look around now and at the past, at Flannery (Jerry), at countless other guys like Johnny O’Connor, Redser (Eoin Reddan), Fogs (John Fogarty), Chris Keane, lots of fellas who have done well and come back into the Irish set-up through (maybe) a different route. It shows the value of having Connacht playing in the Magners League and in Europe,” he said.
Playing in Galway has also helped both Browne and Short, who have settled in spectacularly well with Brive; it doesn’t surprise Jackman who described them thus: “Damian is a horse of a man; he went to England because he wasn’t getting any international recognition with Connacht, and he made a huge impact in Northampton. It was the same type of thing for Christian Short who also went to Northampton, he got picked up on a three-month contract by Brive and did enough for them to offer him a longer term deal.
“Brownie is well suited to the French game; they like to have line out catcher and another who is a bit of a brute around the field. Browne is that guy and Short is the guy who wins the line out ball, so they complement each other well.”
For the moment, Jackman has had more to think about recently than any reunion though; the weather of the last couple of weeks had inevitably disrupted Leinster’s preparations for this European task and without games they have had to find other ways to keep them sharp in advance of this tie.
“I suppose it’s not the ideal scenario when you don’t have a match, but surprisingly we have got through a lot of work. It hasn’t really disrupted us that much,” says Jackman,
“The danger of missing two games is that we might be seen as being undercooked, but mentally we need to back ourselves; we have done the work and can hit the ground running on Saturday but we must really put a high pace on the game and make Brive question why they are over here,” he said.
Jackman did contend, however, that it might be more difficult second time around following Leinster’s 36-13 win in France in October. “Things have changed for them; we have been studying them closely for the last number of weeks, the scouting we would have made on them for the away game was different – they were very up and down back then, and there was no clear pattern to their play. However, they look a different prospect now.
“Before the first game, we spoke with Damian and Christian and we sensed there wasn’t a great buzz in the squad; a couple of weeks after the game they sacked their coach and I think over the last couple of weeks you have seen the new coaching set-up and a different side completely.
“The way we are looking at this is that there will yet be a shock somewhere in this competition and hopefully it’s not going to involve us. I can’t imagine they will go through the rest of their pool games without giving it a lash even though they have nothing much to play for in theory.”!
Meanwhile, back-row forward Chris Henry is one of several key Ulster players to have signed a contract extension.
The Ballymena number eight, who has five Ireland A caps, is to stay at Ravenhill for a further three years.
Hooker Nigel Brady, flanker Willie Faloon and centre Ian Whitten have re-signed on two-year contracts.
Academy scrum-half Ian Porter, centre/wing Nevin Spence, prop Adam Macklin and prop Paddy McAllister have all signed one-year contracts, as has Belfast Harlequins player Neil McComb.
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