In his first column of the New Year, Johnny looks forward to the Dragons this weekend, talks about his hectic Christmas schedule and laments the absence of a present from his Connacht teammates.
Happy New Year everyone and I hope you all had a good Christmas. Mine was a typical enough Christmas rugby wise; there wasn’t much going on to be honest, it’s just the way things work out. There was a really short turnaround between games, it was just a case of playing a game and then resting as much as possible to get ready for the next one.
Off the pitch, I got a few presents here and there. I got an iPhone off my wife, but I suppose it’s one of those regretful presents because I don’t think I’ve put it down since I got it! She got me a nice jacket as well.
We have a nine day break (after the Dragons) which isn’t that long, but compared to our schedule in the last couple of weeks it will seem like a lifetime!
We did Secret Santa at Connacht alright; me and Andrew Browne were the only lads not to get any presents because the lads that were meant to get us something said they were sick. They still haven’t got us anything yet, so that will have to be addressed. I think Michael McCarthy and Jamie Hagan were the guilty parties, but you’d expect that from those lads to be honest, especially Jamie Hagan!
A case of missed opportunities…again
As for the games themselves, it seems to be the scheme of things in this column that I’m talking about missing opportunities. We had great opportunities against both Munster and Leinster, but as has been the case for a while, we just haven’t been able to score. OK, we did score a try against Leinster the last day, but they scored a lot more than us. We put so much pressure on teams; it’s just getting over the line that’s the problem. It’s a collective thing really, we’re doing a lot of good things but it’s kind of hard to justify that when you say to people that we’re doing good things because at the end of the day, we’re just not winning games; we’re just not getting the rewards at the moment.
Of the two games, the Leinster game was particularly physical to be honest. I know they made their tries look easy but that was because they had good composure. I think though, that in the first 20/25 minutes we really put it up to them but we just kept making mistakes, myself included.
We have been playing close enough to the same team in nearly every game lately and I’m sure there would have been some rotation in the squad, but we’re limited because of the injuries we have at the moment. At the same time it was good to blood some players, the likes of Eoin McKeon (below) for example.
A strain on the Connacht squad gave 19-year old Eoin McKeon the chance to impress
Eoin’s only 19 but playing in the games was no bother to him. He’s quite talented and it was good to be able to give him the opportunity to play and to put his hand up. Next year, when he comes in to the squad on a more full time basis, he’ll have had that experience and it will stand him in good stead.
We’ve been quite stretched as a squad in the last while, but that’s just the way it is and there’s nothing you can do about it. There are worse things that could happen; I’d probably be giving out a lot more if I wasn’t playing.
Far from ideal preparation
Preparation wise, playing so many games so close together definitely does have an effect and you have to be quite careful; you don’t want to overload players. Over the Christmas you might get out on the pitch twice and the length of time on the pitch is a lot shorter than usual.
You’re trying to squeeze in stuff and you have to use your time wisely. There might be a couple of things you might have to miss out on. It’s not quite a case of hit and hope but there are always things you want to cover that you can’t cover and that can even be the case if you have a lot more time to prepare. Over the last few weeks though, our schedule has had to be miniaturised and boiled right down.
We did Secret Santa at Connacht alright; me and Andrew Browne were the only lads not to get any presents because the lads that were meant to get us something said they were sick.
From my own point of view, I kind of struggled with injury before the Christmas and I didn’t have a lot of rugby under me before we played Munster, so I found it a bit difficult to get through things. That’s the way it is, you just have to get on with it.
I was grand for the most of it, I might have been a bit tired in the second half against Leinster, but you just find a way of getting more out of yourself and that will be the same against the Dragons on Thursday night. It’s not all bad though because we’ll have a long break after the Dragons game. Well, we have a nine day break which isn’t that long, but compared to our schedule in the last couple of weeks it will seem like a lifetime!
It’s obviously not ideal to be playing again, but that’s the way it goes and we just have to get on with it. The Dragons game is a big one; let’s not beat around the bush, they’re a place and a couple of points above us in the table so if we beat them we go ahead of them in the table. They’re quite a good side, they beat Munster fairly recently and I know we beat them earlier in the season, but you just have to judge each game on its own merits on the day rather than throwing the form book at it.
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