LONG READ ‘He never backs down from a fight’ - Jack Conan times another Lions run to perfection

“Gaelic was my first love. When I hang up the boots, I can probably see myself going back and playing with Kilmac.”

Kilmacanogue were already waiting patiently for the day, not too far down the track, when three-Test Lion Jack Conan reacquainted himself with a green and black jersey. By the start of August, Conan may be a six-Test Lion. He has timed his run for the British & Irish Lions’ No.8 jersey to perfection, and is primed to start at Suncorp Stadium in the First Test against the Wallabies.

In 2021, Conan was a surprise selection for the tour to South Africa. Warren Gatland sought permission from the Lions board to bring an extra loose forward. CJ Stander, Billy Vunipola and an up-and-coming Caelan Doris all missed out on selection. Conan was left on a razor’s edge. The Leinster back-rower and Courtney Lawes were numbers 36 and 37 on the list.

Gregor Townsend, who was Lions attack coach, remembered a nervous two-hour wait, the night before the squad announcement, until approval was given. “Otherwise we’d have to go back and take someone off the list,” Townsend said. “Around about 7pm, we got the thumbs up. Then we could have a couple of drinks!”

Once he linked up with the Lions squad, Conan got down to work. He got first crack at No.8, in the Murrayfield win over Japan, and held off Taulupe Faletau and Sam Simmonds to start all three Tests against the Boks.

Buoyed by that experience, Conan got a decent run with the Ireland jersey and started in wins over New Zealand, Japan, France, Wales and Scotland. By the end of 2021/22, though, Doris could not be denied. Conan featured in all three Tests of an historic series win over the All Blacks, at season’s end, but as a replacement.

Just as the young Turk was charging, Conan was struggling with energy and endurance issues. He told the Irish Independent, in April 2023, it was like being “at 60 per cent the whole time”. He approached the Leinster medical staff, trying to find a solution, but it was during a brain scan, after a neck injury, that a radiologist came to the rescue. He spotted a cyst in Conan’s pituitary gland that was causing a ‘significant hormone imbalance’. Once the issue was identified, the path to better became clearer.

I’d have Jack on the pitch, wherever I could. He’s tough. He’s an absolute workhorse.

Once Doris was in-situ, there was little shifting him. Over the past two seasons, Conan has played 47 times for Leinster and Ireland, but only 19 were starts at No.8, five of them after Doris’s shoulder injury. As he settled into his early 30s, the Wicklow native remained a key figure for province and country, but days in gun XVs were harder earned. “When you get a bit older,” he said earlier this year, “you realise that probably most of your good days are behind you, so I just want to make the most of every chance I get.”

As a fellow No.8, former Ulster, Munster and Cardiff forward Nick Williams has kept a keen eye on Conan since his breakthrough. “I’ve always rated him,” says Williams. “I can understand that they had Jamie and Caelan, but I’d have Jack on the pitch, wherever I could. He’s tough. He’s an absolute workhorse.”

Conan missed the Autumn Nations Series, last November, with a hamstring injury. Peter O’Mahony (three times) and Cian Prendergast were the replacement back-rows but Conan was missed. When early Lions squad predictions were made, no-one committed Conan’s name to print. You had the likes of Doris, Faletau, Ben Earl, Jack Dempsey, Jac Morgan, Matt Fagerson and Jack Willis to choose from.

By mid-February, the 32-year-old was making a move up the outside rails. He was brilliant, off the bench, in wins over England and Scotland, then started and scored a try against Wales. Doris was still the leading candidate to start the Test Series at No.8 but maybe, just maybe, Conan could be that experienced back-row bench option when it came time to face the Wallabies.

Before we return to the 2025 Lions squad, we go back 15 years to the game that put Conan’s name firmly on the radar. His St Gerard’s side defeated Blackrock College, 72-time Leinster Senior Cup champions, 7-0 in a quarter-final at Donnybrook Stadium. ‘On this evidence,’ one match report said, ‘it is a serious slight by the Irish representative (under-age) selectors that St Gerard’s number eight Jack Conan has not been capped. Conan had an immense impact on proceedings, with a very high tackle count.’

Jack went into the most talented, and toughest, changing room in world rugby…Nothing was easy for him, but he worked hard and earned his chances.

Former Leinster winger Darragh Fanning was playing with Connacht at the time, but still in touch with his club side, St Mary’s. He recalls how the club were eager to sign Conan up for All-Ireland League experience. The young back-row prospect ended up with Old Belvedere and learned a lot from Kiwi forward Leo Auva’a, who was in and around the Leinster senior squad for a few seasons. Fanning and Conan played some Leinster ‘A’ games together before forcing their way into Matt O’Connor’s plans.

“If you think about it,” says Fanning, “Jack went into the most talented, and toughest, changing room in world rugby. He was competing against guys like Sean O’Brien, Shane Jennings, Kevin McLaughlin and Jamie Heaslip – seasoned Ireland internationals and multiple European Cup winners. Nothing was easy for him, but he worked hard and earned his chances. In fairness to Jack, he forced his way into that team and stuck at it.”

Fanning was on the wing, in February 2014, when Conan scored a try against Cardiff, three minutes into his senior Leinster debut. “Matt liked Jack a lot, as he had this great skill-set for such a big guy,” Fanning recalls. “What stood out – and this is saying something because that Leinster side had some serious pros – was how hard he worked. In the summer, he would do a lot of sessions by himself, in the evenings. He’d get through all the Leinster work, then head home and get out to the gym for extras.”

“The other thing that I’ll always remember,” Fanning adds, “is how phenomenally skilful he was, when you saw it up close. He used to go out so early before matches, even getting out before the kickers, for his own warm-ups. He can pass it incredibly far one-handed, off each hand. He can kick drop-goals, from all ranges, off his right and left. If I get along to a game now, he’s still out there really early. You just knew, back then – there was more to this guy than his size. He’s always had massive competition in that back row, but he never backs down from a fight. He puts his head down, does the work and stays in the fight.”

In terms of boys that never take a backward step, he’d be right up there. That’s something you need against the Aussies

Staying in the fight. So it proved in the 2025 Six Nations. Conan’s name started to appear in that post-Six Nations geyser of predicted Lions squads. There is a strong chance he would have made the squad off his own graft. When Doris badly injured his shoulder in the Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton Saints, five days out from the big announcement, Andy Farrell must have circled ‘Jack Conan’ and triple-underlined it.

Conan was one of several Leinster, Bath and Leicester (Ollie Chessum) players that benefited from missing the Dublin defeat to Argentina. When they got their chance, against Western Force, the Lions put in their best performance of the tour, so far. Conan was good against Force but even better against the Reds and Brumbies, when he topped the charts for tackles, carries and metres gained.

It would be a major surprise now if he is not handed the No.8 shirt for the first encounter with the Wallabies next Saturday.

“Jack will be going up against the likes of Rob Valetini and Langi Gleeson,” says Williams. “You almost need to fight fire with fire. Some people have said that if Caelan wasn’t injured, Jack would not have made the squad. I think he’s more than earned his position there. In terms of boys that never take a backward step, he’d be right up there. That’s something you need against the Aussies, because they do a lot of chatting, those boys. It’d be good for him to just run over a few, every now and then!”

Such is the laid-back and unassuming nature of Conan that, in stats trawls over recent years, one would happen upon that 2021 Lions tour. One would remember, all over again, that the man who just wanted to play for Wicklow GAA, growing up, started all three Tests against the Springboks.

Four years on, in Australia, we are heading for a repeat.

“When you look at Elliot Daly,” Fanning notes, “he was probably going to make the Test team, too, before he got injured. He is a guy, when you’re looking at England this past while, who you’d never pick out as a star player. He’s a lot like Jack. This guy that’s there, and who’s solid and dependable. You never know. Sometimes it’s all about form, and timing.”