Fit-again Sean Cronin retains hope of Lions summer role
It was an appropriate name for the ground on which the Ireland hooker would make his reappearance.
Three months had gone since the player pulled up so dramatically against Zebre at the RDS, clutching the back of his thigh as if shot by some unseen assailant from the stand. Diagnosis: A grade two hamstring tear.
“I was playing in front of 55 people in Banbridge on the Friday and then there was 55,000 at the Aviva on the Saturday,” said the Limerick man.
“To be honest, I was just happy to get back playing. The leg held up well.”
A week later and Ronan O’Gara was touting him, not just for a place on the Lions squad due to visit New Zealand this summer, but for an impact role off the bench in all three Tests after his penetrative running earned him a try against Ospreys and set up another for Dan Leavy in a 20-18 win.
“That’s why he will be the impact sub in each test v NZ,” O’Gara tweeted.
“Incredible feet and pace and power from Sean Cronin.”
Some claim for a man who missed the Six Nations and one deemed to be well behind Rory Best, Dylan Hartley, Jamie George and Ken Owens in the queue.
“Is he on the selection committee?” Cronin smiled. “I hope he is! I’d be chuffed and delighted if I was even in those conversations, but it is good to have people like ROG plugging for you in the background.
“It is not a cliche: This squad at Leinster is so hard to get into, it is just what I am focused on, just trying to play well, just get back on the pitch, just trying to play well and get minutes under my belt and try and get up to the level.”
O’Gara is far from alone in his convictions when it comes to Cronin.
Alan Wyn-Jones said at the weekend that the 30-year-old was the type of player he would see on the bench and wonder why he wasn’t starting, but Cronin knows that the super-sub tag has got him into as many squads as it has kept him in reserve.
He bagged 56 minutes of the win in Wales last Saturday and more game time is surely in the pipeline this weekend as Leinster face Connacht in Galway.
The last of the Lions auditions will be over once Leinster complete their Champions Cup semi-final against Clermont Auvergne on Sunday week.
Cronin is nothing if not a long shot to make it, although the concept that the chosen few must all have considerable Six Nations input as part of their body of work in 2017 is compromised slightly by George’s five replacement appearances for England in the tournament.
And Cronin has proven himself time and again in blue and green.
“I think I was at a decent level before Christmas and was going well, but I am just trying to work back to that and that is the focus,” said Cronin.
“I think the thought around picking the Lions squad or whatever is that Warren Gatland is looking for guys playing at the top Test arena.
“That is the pool he is going to pick from. Now, if he goes to pick guys from outside that, happy days, and I’d be chuffed and flattered even if I was just in those conversation, but it is just about trying to get back here and stay fit and play well.”
The injury was a funny one.
Cronin had never suffered a serious soft-tissue problem like it before and there was an understandable concern when he road-tested it with the ‘A’s and even again at the Liberty Stadium.
Thankfully, there have been no unwanted after-effects.
“The rehab guys have been fantastic. The lads just identified I’d been been working certain muscles too much over the years and that I needed to work on certain areas that would help me improve and, you know, touch wood, it seems to have worked.”
Everything from here on in is down to him.
