Andrew Conway and Munster braced for Scarlets showdown

A packed house, a perfect evening for running rugby, a well-manicured playing strip and Munster shedding any inhibitions by giving the ball plenty of width. On a night made for wingers, last Friday at Musgrave Park was probably the kind of occasion Andrew Conway had in mind when he first made the switch to Munster three seasons ago.

No-one did more to set Munster on their way to that potentially priceless win over Edinburgh than the 24-year-old ex-Leinster winger.

First there was his offload out of the tackle for Rory Scannell to score, then the beating of one defender and chipping of another for Simon Zebo's dexterous one-handed touchdown, before his own neat finish for his first try since October.

Looking back, he admits being dropped to the bench for the defeat away to Connacht in their previous outing was “probably a blessing in disguise because I had been carrying a few little knocks from a lot of 80 minutes over the season and it was probably just catching up with me in my performance.

Seasonal finale

“My momentum wasn’t that good. I was getting through games without being too busy, without being too effective, without adding too much value and by subbing that Connacht week I wasn’t in for as many reps that. It was as close to not training as you can come.”

Indeed, this has been Conway’s most productive season in his professional career, with tomorrow’s seasonal finale against the Scarlets at Thomond Park set to be his 22nd game of the campaign, of which 15 so far have seen him complete 80 minutes.

By contrast, he played only 12 games in his first season with the province, 2013-14, before “settling in” last season, albeit admitting “I had a bee in my bonnet about why I wasn’t getting picked” toward the end of the campaign.

Whereupon Felix Jones' enforced retirement and Simon Zebo's presence at the World Cup gave Conway the launching pad of a run at fullback this season. He scored in three successive games last October, but watching Zebo's performances in the Six Nations, Conway could read the tea leaves.

“I talked to Joe [Schmidt] up in camp and he said he’d seen me as winger that can cover fullback, so you take the positives from it and try and finish the season well on the wing.”

However, having been rerouted to the wing for the game against Leinster at the Aviva, Conway admits: “I probably didn’t respect the change as much as I should have and didn’t sit myself down to go ‘right I need to re-concentrate myself on different roles’. Cue his demotion against Connacht, but last Friday was a reminder of his brilliant youth.

Most important

When he was the star turn of Ireland’s Under-20 Six Nations and World Cup campaigns in 2010, it was hard to envisage Conway still being uncapped six years later. But the desire to play for his country burns within him more than ever.

“That is the most important thing in any Irish player’s eyes. I would imagine playing for Ireland is at the top of every Irish player’s goal list. Everyone wants to have an international career. I am no different, believe me. I think about it a lot.”

“One of my goals this season was to play for Ireland. If I end up going to South Africa, which I doubt is going to happen, it will be an unbelievable honour. I am not thinking about that [tour] now to be honest.

“It [playing for Ireland] is something you think about on a daily basis. You see your mates playing for Ireland. You see your mates going up to camp in November, Six Nations and playing in World Cups. You would be mad not to want that for yourself.”

He concedes that Munster’s premature end to their season is not going to help the cause of uncapped players such as himself. Nor is he inclined to shout from the rooftops about their backs clicking for a bonus point haul last week.

“Scoring tries from the 22 is great and that is where we want to be, but we want to be doing that consistently, not just one in every four or five games.”

Furthermore, he says, the pressure on Munster’s outside backs to be accurate in possession is more acute against the Scarlets given their capacity to live off scraps “fairly handsomely”, as Conway puts it.

"Scarlets are a brilliant team. If you watch them consistently, they can score tries from everywhere. They have got some of the best Welsh backs in the game. Liam Williams is one of the best players in Europe at the moment.

“Scott Williams make a massive impression when he is in the game. They have a really good backrow who are all over your ball.”

“We are going to have to be on our A-game to compete with them. We are looking forward to it though. Obviously we had a good win on Friday. There are a few defensive things that we need to touch up on. It is going to be a good game.”