Rallying troops for final surge

Paddy Johns sits in his chair and gives the media his faraway stare. You question whether the soft-spoken Dungannon captain would rather test the mercy of a charging Cork Con pack, with his body on the ground and offside, than face the inquisition. A few rake marks around the shoulder blades or 10 journalists firing questions. Studs please.

Johns has always been officer material. He is courteous, helpful and personable but quintessentially he is more the hard professional, pitch war-horse than the front-of-the-house salesman.

In that respect his influence in Dungannon has been huge. It was Johns who planted the seed in Harry Williams' head that Australian international and former Saracens team-mate Ryan Constable would make the perfect outside centre for an Ulster team with a European attitude. And it is Johns who relentlessly applies a suffocating logic to the sparkling Dungannon form, their quality and their charging momentum.

"It took a while for us to get a full team out at the beginning of the season," he says. "It was mainly injuries and non-availability of players that was the problem. We have got better depth in the squad than we've had in previous years and I guess the pitches firming up has helped us as well because we like running the ball. In wet, gusty days it's impossible to do that."

The route to the final for Dungannon was not punctuated with scented flowers. A slow start ensured an end-of-season surge was required to allow the side to put one foot into the top four and make the play-offs.

"There was a break in the season of four or five weeks because of the foot-and-mouth," he says. "During that time we said `you know lads we're going to have a full team together now because the international matches are disrupted'.

"The first game then was actually against Cork Con and we narrowly managed to win that. We said then that if we can beat the leaders then there is no reason why we can't win it.

"But I don't think the fact that we beat Con in the league will be a factor in the final. Last week when we played Galwegians, we hadn't beaten them. They'd beaten us previously so that wasn't a factor.

"The way I look at it is that Cork Con have to go and win it again. They won the league, they won again last week in the semi-final and they have to go and do the same again against us.

"We've had a second bite. We finished third in the league two weeks ago and now you could say we've finished second and now have a chance to go one step further."

No chance here of Dungannon talking themselves up for a knock. The tag of favourites is one which both coaches, Dungannon's Willie Anderson and Cons' Brian Hickey, toss to each other.

Both sides, despite having big names, operate best as a collective and even Johns, with a little qualification, concedes he leads a team full of vim and one that even possesses a smouldering confidence.

"If we didn't have the spirit, we mightn't have come through," he says. "But the players are definitely self-motivated. We dug deep and it's brought us through. I'm sure Cork Con have a similarly good spirit in their side because you don't get to a final without that. You know, we've had a few close calls this season."

Not as close as the cards he keeps to his chest.