RUGBY: Gerry Thornley talks to the Leinster outhalf whose return from a serious shoulder injury was marked by a match-winning pass
Five minutes to go. Leinster are down four points and most probably need a try to win. Amid the late afternoon winter gloom cue the number 21 on the fourth official's illuminated board and the return of Nathan Spooner. It had been eight months since he'd ruptured his right shoulder but as comebacks go this would be pretty special.
On his previous appearance on a sodden and fateful April night in Cork when Munster and Leinster contrived a 6-6 draw, Leinster connections had feared for Spooner's future in the game. One reconstruction of a shoulder is bad enough, but two?
A near identical scenario faces his Australian compatriot Owen Finegan but he need look no further than Spooner for inspiration. And a tape of the outhalf's cameo in the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin last Saturday.
In the 80th minute Brian O'Driscoll takes the ball up the middle and sets it up. As Brian O'Meara starts to pick it up, there's no called move, so Spooner calls for it and, taking the ball from deep, switches back to the left to attack the gain line. The next couple of seconds will decide the match.
"A bit earlier I'd thrown a wide one to Victor (Costello) and we'd nearly gone down the short side on the right, so it was just a spur of the moment thing. But toward the end of the game their forwards are going to get tired so I sneaked down the short side and Denis (Hickie) was there. I sort of had a look up and thought it was a winger, and I wasn't going to throw it out. But then I realised it was a prop and a 'two', so I threw it early and gave him enough time to go round."
To the naked eye, at the time, the pass looked a fraction forward, and on BBC Grandstand last Sunday Jeremy Guscott and Matt Dawson were in no doubt, but Spooner is not having that.
"I'm gonna say 'no'. I'd say 'line ball'. If you watch the momentum it came out of the hands backwards, that's what you've got to watch. It might have travelled forward but I was going forward as well."
It had, Spooner admits, been "a long road back", for which he was indebted to the perserverance and patience of coaches Matt Williams and Willie Anderson. "They had sat me down and had a bit of a chat with me 10 days before the match and said: 'look, we really need you to start moving forward. We need you to start making a few more tackles in training, start getting into it'."
For the last few weeks Williams and Anderson kept Spooner back for additional tackling practice, usually with the help of Simon Keogh. As satisfying as the big play for the try were the couple of tackles he made, and he seemed to be making a point of taking the ball up in contact a few minutes later when dipping into the oncoming tackle.
"Sometimes you need pushing into doing things to help you overcome that mental barrier. The doctors say it's fine, it's structurally sound and it's just a decision you have to make. 'Right, everything's fine, I'm going to go and make a tackle', but to try and do that in a game without having done it in training is very hard, so in that way Matt and Willie were great in pushing me on in training.
"You make a few hits, you start to feel better about it and then you sort of get into a game and the adrenaline is pumping and you don't worry about it."
"He's a good kid," says Williams of Spooner. "Warns (Christian Warner) did a great job, and no one got through Warns, but with 10 minutes to go he'd done so much work he was getting tired and we had to score a try so we brought Spoons on. He's such a beautiful player but he just has to get his belief back when he goes into contact. Full credit to him. Part of his strength is his self-belief to make that play."
Though it's hard to equate with what appears to be the archetypal, laid-back Aussie, he compares the nervousness he felt last Saturday to his debut for Leinster against Ebbw Vale in the Celtic League at the end of August last year - though in his hour on the pitch that night he scored a try, a penalty and five conversions.
"That was one of the most nervous games in my life because I'd come such a long way to come and play here, and it was the same again last Saturday. Being out for a while and being an overseas player, people are watching you closely. I know they're not wanting me to do badly but you are aware of that extra pressure. It makes you a bit nervous but it's a good thing in some ways."
