Andrew Conway admits burning desire to be Munster's go-to guy once again

By Charlie Mulqueen

It’s the try that will forever cement Andrew Conway’s special place in the hearts of thousands of Munster supporters; the amazing individual score that he somehow engineered in the dying minutes that saw Munster pull off a dramatic 20-19 victory over Toulon in the quarter-final of the European Cup last April.

A perfectly good clearance by Toulon out-half Francois Trinh-Duc seemed destined for the safety of Thomond Park’s East Stand touchline until Conway spotted something that the rest of the 26,000-plus in the stadium had missed. He reckoned by stretching his arms as high as possible he could snatch the ball out of the clouds.

He was right. Somehow the oval stuck in his hands and suddenly he was off. Displaying scorching pace and incredible lines of running, Conway sped past tackler after tackler over a gripping 40-metre dash to the Toulon line. A few moments later Ian Keatley knocked over the conversion and Munster had achieved the most unlikely of victories.

“It’s nice to be involved in a big moment like that but that’s all it is, one moment in one game,” Conway said.

“Granted, it had a huge impact on that game and generates in me a desire and determination to be that guy again. It’s a nice feeling after a game to have the guys coming up to you and saying well done and you know you have pulled out one for the team.”

Munster may well need similar moments of genius to see them to a rare win over his former team at the Aviva on Saturday in what will be his 100th appearance in the red jersey.

“It’s exciting to go back even if it has become a tough place to go not just for us but the rest of Europe as well. The novelty factor may have worn off a bit for me but for Joey (Carbery), he’s probably thinking about going back to play against his old team but once you get out there and play against them once, it becomes familiar after that.”

Utility back Conway can’t be sure what number he will wear from week to week. He’s not bothered whether it’s 15 or 14 although he stresses there is an appreciable difference between full-back and the wing.

“I’d like to be better at both but being able to swap is definitely a positive. Usually when you get the ball out on the wing, you’re attacking and hitting the line. But you have to be a lot more conscious of space at 15. When I look back on my career, there are times when I should have given a pass and put someone else in space and times when I should have taken that space myself.”

There’s a reluctance in the Munster camp to place too much significance in the cakewalk that was last week’s win over Ulster, with many wondering if they would have been better off in the kind of arm wrestle Leinster showed many admirable attributes in beating Connacht.

“No matter who we were up against, we were always going to play well,” Conway argues.

“If it was Leinster, we were going to put up a good fight. Pete (captain O’Mahony) led the charge from the start. He was fired up in the changing room beforehand and on the pitch going out. He took that on to the pitch and when your leader is doing that, everyone seems to row in behind. But Pete can’t do that every week, it has to be across the board. That’s how the momentum of rugby works.”

Interpro games at this stage of the season invariably command the attention of the Irish management. Put Leinster out against Munster and they don’t come any bigger.

“By playing well in these games, you would hope to be involved in November, play badly and you probably won’t be,” Conway acknowledged.

“It’s really week to week. You learn from experience that if you start daydreaming about November, you’re not going to get to what you’re daydreaming about. It’s about the here and now.”