The west’s awake, insists Connacht convert Cronin

GO WEST, young man. That’s the advice from Connacht hooker Seán Cronin for the many fledgling rugby professionals who find themselves struggling to make the senior squads in the provinces of Munster, Leinster and Ulster.

A couple of years ago, after three good, progressive years in the Munster Academy, but finding himself in a queue behind the considerable talents of Jerry Flannery and Denis Fogarty, Seán decided to head for Connacht, and boy has that decision paid off.

A first full international cap last November, against Fiji in the RDS, a place on the bench during the recent Six Nations, is one testimony to that fact; a European semi-final tomorrow night in Galway – Amlin Challenge Cup against French big guns Toulon – is another.