Andrew Conway has good reason to look forward to this week’s team selection. A hat-trick against Japan leaves Irish coach Andy Farrell with little wriggle room for wholesale change. If the game last weekend was an examination of the Munster winger then Conway earned himself a first.
There is also an historical justice that comes into play for the 30-year-old. Conway played for Ireland either side of the games against the All Blacks in 2018 but he didn’t get a chance to face them. That still stands. He has never faced the Haka.
“Yeah it would be unbelievably exciting to play against them,” he says.
“They’re the standard bearers in world rugby for as long as I’ve ever been watching rugby. I’d be extremely excited and we haven’t had team selection so…”
Five days after last weekend there are few who believe he has not earned a start. With an all round game, that like James Lowe on the other wing, centres around high tempo activity of being useful and relevant, Conway has taken some of the stress out of rugby and the game is loving him back.
“Different stages of your career there’s an experience you can fall back on, there’s adapting and taking what’s been good and leaving what hasn’t served you,” says Conway. “Just enjoying rugby I suppose and getting out there and taking it for what it is, a game of rugby.
“Sometimes they work out great other times they don’t. From a winger’s perspective I was at the end of three tries at the weekend that everyone on this call would have scored. But it’s the other parts of the game that are that you wouldn’t necessarily see unless you are in camp and you really know what you are looking at. It’s really great to score a few tries and be involved in a really strong team performance. I just try to enjoy it as much as I can.”
That has come across. Despite his intensity on the pitch, there’s a gamey, can-do urgency to his play that belongs to the thrill of being involved. The energy and willingness is there for all to see whether it’s fetching a high ball against players bigger and taller. Conway is not a winger who believes rucks are for schmucks.
It’s a contagious kind of vitality. The toughness with spirit from a player, who is not among the largest, brings its own juice. Last week it was all flowing just right. Getting on the ball has been part of the game Conway has tried to develop.
“Absolutely yeah, 100 per cent,” he says. “That’s one of the things I was chatting about. Sometimes the ball doesn’t flow out to you and if you are out on the wing, sometimes the game can start and there are 15 minutes before you get a touch.
“But there are going to be opportunities for you in some way. The ball doesn’t make it out and you just stand there waiting for it again, it can be a long first-half. That’s the way it goes.
“Other times it is flowing out to you and you have 10 carries before half-time. But it is trying to be smart and add value in different ways. So off I go, have a little look, or, try and see who is where and knowing our game plan.”
He knows, they all do, that this weekend against New Zealand is different broth entirely. But the challenge has them humming and the style they played against Japan is much closer to answering the questions they have been asking of themselves.
With that upswing, the 2018 miss against the All Blacks is not about to drag him down. Forward momentum is there. The three tries as well as hat-trick against the USA three years ago puts him among players like Brian O’Driscoll, who also did it twice against France and Scotland, with Denis Hickie, Rob Henderson, Craig Gilroy and CJ Stander also in the club.
“Yeah, that’s a long time ago,” he says of 2018. “You kind of move past that fairly quickly. You’ve got no choice. Obviously you want to be selected for the big matches. But whenever you’re not, you got to prepare the team and you got to add value in some shape or form.”
Big selfless talk coming from a team player. But the head down, keep believing, never stop attitude has given Conway position and on the cusp of his own personal history.
