Has Andrew Conway’s time arrived?

Andrew Conway was such a superb schoolboy rugby player at Blackrock College that many shrewd judges tipped him to have banked a hatful of Irish senior caps by the time he reached his mid twenties.

Guinness Pro12

Munster v Treviso

Tomorrow: Thomond Park, 2pm

Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)

Betting: Munster 1/50, Treviso 19/1, Draw 100/1

However, things didn’t work out for him, initially when a member of the Leinster squad and later when he took what for him was a huge and difficult decision – to transfer to Munster in an attempt to revive his career.

Conway is now 25 and still has to pull on the coveted green jersey. It’s not that he hasn’t settled in Munster or not reached the required standard on the rugby pitch, rather more a case of injury or bad luck intervening just when it looked as if the door was finally about to open.

And the full house at Thomond Park the other week for the game against the Maori All Blacks left the stadium convinced that Conway’s was up to the mark. His courage and handling skills under a succession of Garryowens were amazing and his ability to turn defence into attack in a twinkle even more so.

“The Maori game was brilliant”, he enthuses.

“I underestimated how big it was going to be. I hadn’t played in a Thomond Park like that in a long time as I wasn’t playing against Glasgow. On the way in on the bus, you see families on their way to the match, lots of kids, next generations stuff, and then it’s a special place.

“Those games are special and remembered for years and years. It’s always good to put on a performance on occasions like that. The crowd played a massive part, you can see the difference in us when there’s a crowd there. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to rely on a crowd but we’re human beings and that’s the way it works. When you have people screaming at your back and you know you have 20, 000 people pulling for you, it makes things easier.

“It was the most excited I’ve ever been wearing a Munster jersey to be honest”.

So where exactly does all of this leave Andrew Conway and his burning ambition to play for his country?

“To get into the national team, I’ve got to deliver time and time again”, he accepts. “That’s the key and where I have fallen down over the last few years. Whether it was injury or just missing out on selection, the consistency hasn’t been there. You see the lads who earned their first caps over the last few weeks, Jack O’Donoghue who has been consistently excellent for the past two years, Billy Holland for ten years, John Ryan coming on in leaps and bounds.

“When Munster are playing well, it’s easier to get in there. With Connacht last year, their lads got picked for the South African tour and rightly so because they were riding the crest of a wave. So there’s no reason if we’re going well and I’m playing well to not get called up and get a few caps.

“I’m 25. I’m happy that I’m playing well and that there’s plenty more to come, that I’m getting better and better every year. I’m probably doing it the opposite way to most people who get better up to 25 whereas I feel I have matured enough to see the holes in my game.

“There’s a team around us, Rassie, Jacques (Nienaber), Felix (Jones), Jerry Flannery and the quality of the players in the squad and you accept that you can improve in different areas on a week to week, month to month basis.”

Munster’s next game is against Treviso at Thomond Park tomorrow with a 2 o’clock kick-off, is hardly one to stir the juices of the fans at such a busy and attractive stage of the season. But professionals can’t look at it like that and Conway is hopeful Munster will quickly pick up where they left off after the Maori.

“Now we’ve had a week off and it’s a different challenge and it’s up to us to build the momentum back up”, he stresses.