Chasing club and personal goals with the Chiefs

DAVID GANNON INTERVIEW:NEXT SEASON'S Guinness Premiership will be adorned with at least one new Irish player depending on the outcome of tonight's Championship final second leg at the Memorial Stadium (kick-off 7.45). Exeter Chiefs take a 9-6 lead to Bristol from the first leg for a game which has been an 11,850 sell-out since last Friday and will be screened live by Sky Sports.

In the Bristol corner will be the former Leinster hooker David Blaney, while the Chiefs’ line-up features John Hayes’ brother Tommy, the ex-Shannon lock who captains the side, the former Ulster wing Paul McKenzie, the ex-Irish under-20s and Leinster prop Ruaidhri Murphy, and the ex-UCD and Connacht lock David Gannon, who captained an Irish under-21s’ side featuring Jamie Heaslip, Tomás O’Leary and Tommy Bowe to the World Cup final in 2004.

This might not be how Gannon, especially, figured his career would have panned out, but his response to being released by Connacht last summer at the end of his fourth season underlines his resilience. A season in the top flight of English rugby beckons.

“It’s a massive game, probably the biggest in the club’s history” says Gannon simply. “Obviously we would have liked to take more than a three-point lead but we knew it was going to be really tight. Attitude and aggression from the start will be the key. The first 10 minutes is going to be huge for both teams and setting down a marker.”

Gannon joined the Chiefs last December after a six-month interlude in New Zealand and describes them as a very professionally-run, hard-working club, with good facilities and players obliged to contribute to coaching and match-day functions. Coached by long-time club servant Rob Baxter, whose family are synonymous with the club, promotion to the elite level would be a remarkable achievement.

That said, Bristol are seeking an immediate return to the top flight after last season’s relegation and probably start favourites, given they have won 14 successive home games since their 35-26 defeat by Exeter last October. They also won 25-16 at the Chiefs’ Sandy Park ground last Christmas prior to last week’s first leg defeat and finished the regular season four points above Exeter in first place.

Gannon has no complaints that, after arriving mid-way through the season, he is being kept out of the starting secondrow by the good form of Hayes and James Hanks. “They’ve been playing very well week-in, week-out,” says Gannon, who has signed another one-year deal. Being released by Connacht after an injury-troubled season had been a hammer blow. “It was tough. I was at home for six weeks, not sure what my next step was. It was kind of daunting. I thought maybe they might have kept me on for another year but it’s probably worked out for the better. They were making a lot of changes and it was probably something they needed to do and I needed to do.”

Initially without a club, Gannon moved to New Zealand to link up with the Southland Stags last year, and in addition to reaching the semi-finals of the NPC (losing to Wellington), a week after Southland won their first Ranfury Shield in 50 years away to Canterbury.

“It was an unbelievable experience, going to New Zealand and seeing how they do things. Playing in the NPC was great, it was really enjoyable rugby and the Ranfury Shield meant so much to the people there. I kind of compare it to a county winning an All-Ireland. The whole province got behind the team and when we got back with the Shield a couple of thousand supporters met us at a small little airport in Invercargill. A couple of days later there was a parade through the town. It was a bit surreal, as some-one who had hardly heard of the Ranfury Shield before, but the emotion and everything else rubbed off on me and it was a great experience.”

Even before he completed his stint with Southland, the Chiefs had lined him up and after a week at home in Dublin he was packing his bags again. “I’m enjoying it a lot down here. My time in New Zealand gave me a new appreciation of the game, tactically and the way players are involved in setting up game plans, and the training, were all good. Simon Culhane, who has the record for the most points scored in a match for the All Blacks, and Dave Henderson, are two excellent coaches who I learned a lot from.”

His ambition remains to be a professional player and a season in England’s top flight would put him back in the shop window as well. “I’ve had a few setbacks. I’d love to be starting for Leinster week-in, week-out, but you’ve got to take things as they come. I’ve enjoyed my five or six years as a professional rugby player and I’m going to keep on taking it as it comes and try to do my best.”

“I’m still really enjoying my rugby and I’m still pretty young. My enthusiasm for the game has gone up since moving in New Zealand and here. If we win and get into the Premiership that would be amazing.”

Dave Gannon

Position: Lock

DOB: 11/02/83

Birthplace: Dublin

Height: 6’6”/1.97m

Weight: 16st 10lbs/106kg

Previous Clubs: UCD, Connacht, Southland Stags.

Honours: Ireland A, Under-21s