For those players who travelled from the east coast to the west coast, a Connacht-Leinster game has traditionally had an extra spice to it. Points to prove and all that.
This might have been true once upon a time for Conor Oliver, but despite his Skerries roots and winning a Schools Cup with Blackrock College, he has long since moved on from those days.
This is his seventh season away from Leinster, having spent the first five of them with Munster and the last two with Connacht.
“It used to be, but it’s not any more. I’ve done it so many times now. I kind of hold all the interpros together. I left Leinster so young,” he added, having moved to Munster when he was 20.
“Now I look at it as playing the best team in the competition. That’s always a great motivator and then the fact they’re the best Irish team. I wouldn’t look on it like a personal vendetta or anything. I’ve moved on from that.”
Besides which, the surfeit of interpros during the pandemic has also made the rivalries more familiar, or as Oliver puts it: “Doing the previews you …
- March 26, 2022
