Ireland’s Jack Conan has seen the worst of Lions tours and has been making the best of the current one down under in Australia. The No.8 started all three Tests against the Springboks four years ago in front of no fans because of the pandemic and the ban on spectators in the grounds.
One of the favourites to start in the opener against the Wallabies, in Brisbane on Saturday, Conan was robbed of his moment with friends and family absent from the stands as he ran out in Cape Town in 2021.
But this tour is a different kettle of fish, and the contingent of visiting fans started to swell in Adelaide last weekend, for the 48-0 win over an AUNZ XV, and is expected to help fill the 52,500 capacity stadium with red shirts this weekend.
“It’s chalk and cheese,” said the 32-year-old. “It was a great experience in 2021, and no one can ever take away being a Lion from me and playing in three Tests but it was definitely not the same as now. This has been an incredible joy and the best few weeks of my career.
“It was massively different four years ago with no one in the crowd, it felt eerie and strange not to have anyone there in what should be the biggest occasion of your career.
“It’s been an unbelievably special, unbelievably enjoyable few weeks with the lads, moving about, getting to see so many different places and getting to see the ‘sea of red’ at the games, the atmosphere has been incredible.”
The Lions paused for breath after landing in Brisbane on Sunday after five games in two weeks, all wins, in Australia and with a week to prepare for Saturday’s clash.
The schedule of playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday and Saturday in five different cities and three different time zones has taken its toll and the squad have been happy to get into a normal Test week routine.
Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies have had one hit out, a 21-18 win over Fiji in Newcastle, 10 days ago where they looked rusty and off the pace and Conan reckons the Lions will have a harder edge than the Aussies this weekend.
The back row added: “It was the first Test in a while for them. They will be better again having played that game and they will have training time to iron mistakes out. We are all game ready and match hardened having played so many minutes over the last few weeks so we have got to make that count. We are fit, we are ready, they have had that one game and there is no replacement for playing rugby. We are in a good spot.
“We’ve had a bit of time to recover properly and get across a bit of detail because obviously with the short weeks before, you’re trying to fit so much in in a short space of time. So it’s great to get a full week of prep.”
