Cronin: If you play on the edge, you’re going to get hurt

Munster’s James Cronin was amongst the few professional rugby players in Ireland that will have fond memories of last Saturday.

A few hours after the national side crashed and burned at the World Cup, the loosehead prop took a massive step on the road to recovery from a serious knee injury when scoring three tries for Highfield in their AIL victory over Naas.

“Was that my first hat-trick? I suppose it was,” he smiled. “I had a lot of mates on the team including my brother and it was great to get out with them. You can do all the training in the world but playing matches is what it’s about.

“It wasn’t just about fitness but playing rugby, scrummaging, poaching, tackling, carrying, things that you can’t imitate in training. I thought I’d come back and it would be easy. But that wasn’t the case, whereas getting 80 minutes in the AIL at the weekend was great and I felt I did well.”

Cronin, 29 next month, constantly crosses his fingers and touches wood in his hope that a long and deeply frustrating run of injuries has finally come to an end. This most recent issue has cost him close to nine months.

“That’s the professional game nowadays, fellas with six to nine-month injuries,” he says of his most recent setback. “Before this, I had many niggling knocks that interrupted my career.

If you play on the edge, as I do, you’re going to get yourself hurt. I popped my finger out against Racing a few years ago, that kind of bad luck, but you just get on with it and keep going forward.

"This one, though, was more serious, cartilage damage to the knee, a kind of wear and tear thing. It didn’t respond to treatment initially and I was on the way back when I tweaked my hamstring twice. I suppose I was pushing myself to the max to get back and the body was saying, cool the jets. Now, touch wood, the S&C guys and physios and the rehab will keep me injury free.”

Cronin couldn’t conceal the degree of frustration caused by this latest and lengthy spell on the sidelines.

“It’s very hard when you see the lads going out and winning quarter-finals and semi-finals and you can’t contribute,” he lamented. “That’s hard. You want to be out there with your mates and you can’t. You’re trying to get back and it’s not happening for you and that’s a side of the game no one sees and it’s a very difficult period.

"I’m thankful that I’ve come out the other end of it and back playing rugby. The one thing about being out for so long is that it tells you how much you love the game and how much you miss it. Even last week, there was the opportunity to go out and play.

"People kind of say, oh, the AIL, a mucky pitch and so on, when everyone else has a week off ... but I had missed so much rugby that any opportunity I get to play, no matter what level it’s at, I’ll grab it with both hands.”