New cap continues Connacht carve up

The only blemish on Pat Duignan's first cap was that notice of it came too late to ring his parents back in Australia before they went to bed. Not that he was complaining mind.

This is the realisation of a dream for the son of sporting Roscommon parents (his father Patrick played on the Roscommon GAA minors and mother Nuala was runner-up in an All-Irish women's golf tournament), who was born in Canada and reared, until three summers ago, in Australia.

Effectively a backpacker who came her with his girlfriend Fiona and a few mates who saw rugby as a social link, his arrival at Galwegians and Connacht was an uncanny case of right time, right place, right man.

Given some specialist coaching for the first time in his career under the tutelage of Warren Gatland, who brought him into the Connacht A side two seasons ago, Duignan worked tirelessly to fulfil his goal on a £7,500 part-time provincial contract last season, beefing up in the gym and working on his leg strength to improve the pace which originally saw him play on the wing with Manly.

Too much came too soon at the famous Manly club in Sydney, and he noted yesterday: "I'm probably in the condition now that I needed to be then." Yet even after the team's breakfast-time selection briefing and the intervening training session, the slightly starry-eyed Duignan still looked in need of smelling salts.

The 26-year-old greeted his inclusion with "a bit of disbelief and a bit of surprise as well. The four centres in the squad are all pretty evenly matched and playing very well, so it must have been a bit of a toss-up. I'm just very happy."

His pace and lines of running have made him the most eye-catching outside centre in provincial fare this summer. Passes stick to his hands and the former 400 metre runner at university level is an innately well-balanced runner who can change direction without losing stride. And though Connacht's star has waned this past month, "it hasn't really affected my confidence at all," says Duignan.

Having achieved his "ultimate" target, Duignan's next target is to "hold my place" with the new "ultimate goal" being a return trip to Australia next summer - all expenses paid.

It will, he agreed, be of considerable help to have Connacht team-mates Conor McGuinness and Eric Elwood at half-back. A Connacht carve-up? It's been a circuitous route to Pat Duignan's storybook first cap this Saturday, but it is of some comfort to know that Gatland hasn't plucked out a bad one yet.