Back in the cold remove of a tv studio, or maybe even on a couch or a bar stool, Ireland’s sometimes laboured 36-20 win over Japan might not have set pulses racing but the enjoyment felt by a quartet of new Irish rugby internationals celebrating a win together on debut was infectious.
Sean Jansen, at 27, is the most senior of the foursome, as well as the sole starter and the standout, with a try and a worthy man of the match award. Sam Illo, at 25, is the late-blooming second eldest of them, the dynamic Ulster flanker Bryn Ward, who turns 22 next Friday, is the second youngest.
And then there’s Billy Bohan. All four spoke with the media in the mixed zone and though the youngest, Billy Bohan, is 20 years old, he seemed almost the least fazed about it all.
Irish rugby's state of the union down under
Bohan cut his teeth in a young Corinthians side last season and even last autumn was playing some games in Division 2A of the AIL.
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“It’s weird to hear that. A few years have gone by pretty quick, from playing 2A to here. I’m not sure how many months it is, but it feels like it’s been a few years since that, to be honest. So it’s funny.”
“Corinthians has been class, just the team environment when I went in last year. Such a young group, so it was such good craic playing with them. Obviously, the seriousness in the Connacht set-up. Then you go out to Corinthians to play on the weekend, and it’s just great fun. I really enjoyed my time there.
Yet another rugby product from Kildare and specifically his hometown Kilcullen and the Newbridge College conveyor belt under Johne Murphy and co, it perhaps reflects Bohan’s temperament that he made the brave decision to move to Galway when offered a full academy contract with Connacht as opposed to a sub academy deal with Leinster.
One can maybe understand Leinster’s relative reticence over a young prop, and they weren’t to know loose-heads would be dropping like flies this season, but they’ve evidently let a good one go. Having been a near ever-present in last season’s Ireland Under-20 Six Nations games and the Under-20 World Cup, Bohan has flourished this season under Stuart Lancaster’s tutelage and willingness to give young players like himself and Illo opportunities.
His decision to head west as a young man couldn’t have worked out any better.
“No, it couldn’t. It was a tough call, but it’s only two hours west, so it’s not too bad. Andrew Browne, who was the academy coach there, who was my Ireland U19s head coach, he was a big reason why I moved west, because I had a good relationship with him, and he’s been huge for me, my development. I’d like to thank him very much.”
Going into this season, Bohan hadn’t even played one game for Connacht but played 17 games this season and finished as starting loosehead in their final three games. There was also a call up to the Irish Six Nations squad and an A cap last February against England, important staging posts on a campaign he couldn’t have imagined.
“No, not at all, to be honest. To be honest, I wouldn’t have even thought I would have got as many Connacht caps. I was hoping for maybe one or two coming into the season, but it’s gone pretty well with Stuart coming in. It’s clicked well for me. So I’m just very grateful for the opportunity.”
Bohan hails from a rich rugby stock. His maternal grandfather was Mick Doyle, the former Irish coach of the 1985 Five Nations and Triple Crown-winning side. His father Enda was also a prop who played what was a then record 152 AIL games for Lansdowne through the 1990s and 2000s, so Bohan was destined to play the game.
His parents have always been supportive, “driving us around to minis rugby” but never overbearing.
“My dad actually kind of stayed out of it, to be honest. He coached me when I was younger, so he’d get me going when I was younger, but once I knew what I was doing, he’d never really give tips. He’d say, ‘well done’ and stuff, but he wouldn’t get in the way. He just kind of let me make my own path.”
Both Enda and his mum Amanda, along with his older brother Tom and younger brother Jamie, who is in the Leinster sub-academy, were here this week for his jersey presentation on Wednesday and his Irish debut, and were speaking to him after the game at pitchside.
By contrast, Ward’s only relative here was his older brother Zac, but despite having an inkling his first cap might come this week, he spoke of an emotional phone call to his mum Wendy back home.
“I was delighted, to be honest. When you say you have an inkling, you can never know whether you’re gonna get picked or not, so I didn’t really have too much of a hope whether I was going to or not.
“I was just sort of training away, keeping my head down and after they named the training teams on Monday and things like that there, I thought I might have had a chance, but then the squad was announced on Wednesday to us and I was over the moon.
“It was a brilliant phone call home to my mum, a few tears on the phone to her,” he admitted, before smiling and adding: “But, not in front of the boys.”
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