JOHNNY WATTERSONtalks to the scrumhalf about the battle for places on the return from World Cup
TODAY IT is easy to admire Isaac Boss, his commitment, the way he thinks, the wholehearted relocation of his mindset. It’s not often these days the media are wrong-footed by a player’s attitude.
In a casual, lazy way when you think about the World Cup final and New Zealand and you think of Boss and New Zealand, you might conjure up the image of the Ireland and Leinster scrumhalf surreptitiously hunkered down in front of a television cloaked in black and pumping his fist when Tony Woodcock scrambled over for a training ground try against France.
“I watched it with a couple of mates in a house in Dún Laoghaire,” says the 31-year-old, who was born in Tokoroa and was part of the New Zealand squad at the Under-19 World Cup tournament in 1999.
He also played with Waikato in the National Provincial Championship and with the Hurricanes and Chiefs in the Super 12, where he was halfback before the arrival of All Black Byron Kelleher.
“I didn’t really have a preference for who won, to be honest,” he says showing some way towards mild disappointment at the question. There was no insult intended but Boss is explicitly clear that his New Zealand background has no bearing on the intensity of the green of his Irish shirt.
“Well, we weren’t involved,” he says tersely. “So, I didn’t really have a preference. You move on pretty quickly in this game.”
Point taken. The professional always moves on just as Boss did when he arrived from his grandmother’s turf in Co Antrim (Glenarm) down to Leinster last year, having spent five seasons with Ulster.
Boss arrived home with Eoin Reddan to a Leinster squad that had part-timer Cillian Willis, who retired from Connacht and went into the family nursing home business before being encouraged back to help out his home province, playing an important stop-gap role.
Such was Leinster’s growing injury list during the World Cup that Willis started with Academy outhalf Noel Reid against Aironi at the end of September. The avalanche of returning bodies has coach Joe Schmidt pleasantly cast as a schoolboy in the bun factory.
“But, you can’t go thinking too far ahead,” cautions Boss. “You take it as it comes. That is something I have learned. Don’t get too far ahead. Take it in your stride. Look forward to the next weekend. Keep your hopes up.
“If myself, Redser (Eoin Reddan), (John) Cooney and Cillian (Willis) are all thinking towards Munster in the Aviva and the Heineken Cup, you are going to put yourself out of the frame. We’ve got a job to do in Edinburgh first. Hopefully, we will be able to do it.”
Edinburgh have lost only once in their last six home games in Murrayfield with Leinster’s history there patchy. No Irish province has won in the Scottish capital since Munster did so in September 2010.
Leinster’s last visit was two weeks after that 2010 Munster win and the team conceding four tries in a 34-24 defeat.
Still, Schmidt’s cobbled-together teams have kept Leinster in touch with the leading sides. Sitting in third place behind the leaders Ospreys and second placed Munster, the team’s 18 points from six matches played would seem like a satisfying return by Schmidt with limited resources.
Now after a two-week break from the league, freshness should be part of the Leinster armoury, although, forwards coach Jono Gibbes believes it “could be a bit of a hindrance”.
Again Boss treads easily. “It is all about transition,” he explains. “They are on a roll, at the moment, going well. So, the guys that are coming in from national duties have got to fit in like a glove. We want as little hassle as possible. That is what the last week has been about, for us to try and put our best feet forward.”
Once more it all begins again, the squad system, competition for starting places, but it’s a competitive game he’s dying for.
“Yeah, a lot of us are,” he says. “It has been a couple of weeks now. Myself, I haven’t had a lot of rugby so far. It has been a long old season – just training and no games. Fingers crossed, I might get some time this week.”
Maybe indeed.
