This week, Johnny reflects on the Harlequins defeat, his 100th cap, building a statue for Michael Swift and Ian Keatley and Fionn Carr’s disappointment at the result of the X Factor final.
Once again we played a lot of rugby against Harlequins on Sunday evening, but didn’t even have a bonus point to show for our efforts. It’s getting kind of tiring at this stage saying that we could have got something out of a game and that we created opportunities and stuff like that; it’s getting to the stage where we have to finish it off.  The game itself was frustrating because we had more ball than them and we gave them two tries for nothing to be honest. It is disappointing and at some stage we’re going to have to grow up and decide that we’re confident enough to beat teams and realise that we can.
We’re nearly halfway through the season and it’s time we started winning some games and we realise that. If you look at our games, every game this year we’ve been there or thereabouts; but that doesn’t matter at the end of the season, you’ve got to start putting points on the board and that’s what counts. We’re certainly creating opportunities, but we just have to finish them, simple as. Harlequins are a team we’re very capable of beating and I’d say when they come over this weekend they’re going to get it.
You’re supposed to run out on the pitch by yourself but John (Muldoon) got so pumped up before the game that he ran out way ahead of me. I think he realised and he stopped when it was too late, but I was just splitting myself laughing at him.
The tries were definitely preventable, but it would be unfair on me to single out individual players. There’s a collective responsibility about these things. When you’re working together there has to be a lot of cohesion; it’s not fair to be pointing fingers or anything like that. It’s the same when some guy is playing out of his skin, you have to realise that the reason for that is because the other lads are doing their stuff.
I had to go off injured early in the second half myself; I thought at the time that I popped a rib but I’ve had it x-rayed since and it turns out I didn’t; I think I slightly tore an intercostal muscle, it was very sore at the time but I feel a bit stupid now because there’s nothing wrong with me!
Johnny the centurion
It was my 100th cap for Connacht at the weekend and I suppose it’s not really as big an achievement as it was a few years ago. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to play 100 games for the same team, but if you play every game for four seasons in a row, you’d be in or around 100 caps. Considering I had the time away with Wasps though, it’s great to reach that figure. For other guys, it mightn’t be the same, but I’ve an emotional attachment to the place because it’s where I’m from and because of that, maybe I get a lot more out of it. My goals are different from other guys, some guys come down to get game time but I like being here because being from Galway, Connacht are my local side.
The lads didn’t really do anything special for it; you’re supposed to run out on the pitch by yourself, but I said to John Muldoon that I didn’t want any of that. It didn’t matter in any case because John got so pumped up before the game that he ran out way ahead of me. I think he realised and he stopped when it was too late, but I was just splitting myself laughing at him.
I didn’t get much slagging about it at all. Micheal Swift comes in for a lot more slagging because he’s only 12 games off 200 caps. We’re trying to work out how much it would cost to build a statue of him for the craic. We’re all going to chip in, so if there are any sculptors out there willing to do it, we’ll do it for around €1,000, that’s our limit! It could be papier maché or something like that, as long as it has some sort of likeness to Michael Swift, which I wouldn’t imagine is that hard to do.
X Factor let down
Unfortunately, because of the time we were playing at, we missed the X Factor Final on Sunday night. In the squad as a whole, we were very disappointed with the result. Ian Keatley and Fionn Carr were particularly disappointed; they were rooting for One Direction.
One Direction fans Ian Keatley and Fionn Carr pull off their best boyband poses
They’re really into them, they’d actually see themselves as something of a One Direction in the Galway region; they enter a lot of karaoke competitions down in Monroes in Galway and stuff like that; they’d style themselves like One Direction as well. They kind of have their own band, they live with Seán Cronin and he tries to get involved as well, but he hasn’t really got the looks for it I’m afraid. He dresses up like them, but he ends up looking like Vicky Pollard at times!
Rodney Ah You made his debut for us at the weekend. He’s a sweet spoken lad, a really quiet guy. He’s really into his rock music; I’ve a few videos of him dancing in the airport by himself that I might stick up on YouTube. Seriously though, he’s a really good player, a very good scrummager. He’s about 23 stone, I’d say he has to lose a few pounds yet because he’s just coming from his off-season, but you’d be surprised because he’s very light on his feet and he’s quite quick.
Ian Keatley and Fionn Carr actually see themselves as something of a One Direction in the Galway region; they enter a lot of karaoke competitions down in Monroes.
We don’t really have any rituals for new arrivals in the Connacht dressing room, there’s no real singing a song on the bus or anything like that. Normally, you might bring a new guy out for a few beers, but during the season, that’s not really possible. Maybe we should invent something for the new arrivals, so if any JOE readers have any suggestions feel free to let me know (leave a comment at the bottom of the article)!
We have Harlequins again this weekend and although we’re not in an ideal position having lost two pool games already, we haven’t given up hope of qualifying yet. Every team in the pool has lost; we’ve lost two, Harlequins have lost one and Bayonne have lost one. If we can beat Harlequins this weekend, it’s all open again and I think we have a very good chance of beating them. Harlequins and Bayonne have to play again after this weekend, so it’s not over yet; we’ll see what happens.
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