One job left to do for rejuvenated prop Ross
Last Saturday, after the most memorable of rugby games in Cardiff, the tighthead prop struggled to process his surroundings as he embarked on the lap of honour with the rest of his lauded Leinster team-mates.
Little wonder, given where he was 12 months earlier.
Ross returned to Ireland two summers ago after Harlequins hadgiven him the platform to launch his professional career. He came with a gilded reputation, one earned in the weekly grind of the Premiership, but his first season in Dublin curdled rather than matured.
Twenty-one appearances suggests an okay return in what was a bedding-inperiod but more than half were as a replacement and he fell down the pecking order at an alarming rate as questions were asked about his abilities and his fighting weight.
Come the business end of the campaign, Ross was persona non grata. Five minutes in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse was his last action of the season as he failed to make the bench for the Magners League semi-final and final against Munster and Ospreys.
And look at him now.
“Everyone has worked hard but I’ve probably taken the road less travelled,” he admitted yesterday.
“If you had told me five or six years ago that I’d have a Heineken Cup medal in my back pocket and won a few Irish caps I wouldn’t have believed you.
“I was thinking to myself the other day when I was walking around the Millennium Stadium, ‘is this actually happening?’ It can be a little bit hard to believe, but I certainly put the work in and I’ve got the results.”
He won a thing or two with Cork Constitution back in the day but last Saturday’s medal was the first won as a professional and it made him think back to some of the men who had pointed him on the road to success.
People like his first underage coach Gerry O’Donoghue, coaches at Con like Christy Cantillon and Terry Kingston as well as Dean Richards and John Kingston, who took a punt on bringing him over to The Stoop.
Reaching the summit is one thing, remaining there quite another, and it is impossible to stymie a knowing laugh at the thought that Munster have been offered the first opportunity to soften Leinster’s cough by the sporting gods.
Ross can appreciate that wicked sense of humour as much as any man and understands the reality that the bounty on a team’s head multiplies when they claim some silver, especially when the posse is a close neighbour.
Munster will not lack for incentive but then neither will Leinster who, according to Ross, remain greedy for further success and a side who can become the first to claim a season double of Celtic League and European Cup with one more victory.
“It’s always easy to focus for a game against Munster,” he said. “They’re always huge games because there’s such a big rivalry. We lost to them the last time we played them and it’s up to us to redress the balance.”
Thomond Park was only half-full for Munster’s semi-final defeat of the Ospreys but the crowd will be doubled this weekend.
Leinster, by way of contrast, have endured a litany of ultra-physical clashes against Toulouse, Ulster and Northampton lately but any effectminor knocks and niggles may play in Limerick were dismissed out of hand by Ross yesterday.
Yet, the subplots don’t end there.
Ireland have four warm-up fixtures pencilled into the diary next August but this derby marks the last truly competitive outing for what will be the bulk of Declan Kidney’s World Cup squad and the handful of men in red and blue still in the mix for a late call-up.
“There’s no Churchill Cup this year so it’s a last opportunity for people who might be on the fringe to impress,” said Ross, who will likely face Marcus Horan, himself eager to stake a claim after his injury problems.
“There’s only a few games in August so this is definitely a chance to lay down a marker.”
No pressure then.
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