Will Connors back to his roots but Irish ambitions firmly on his mind

WILL Connors returned to his Alma Mater of Clongowes Wood and his childhood club of North Kildare RFC on Tuesday, as Leinster continued with their successful visits to the clubs in the province. The Donadea born Kildare man has his sights firmly fixed on more game time with Leinster and a return to the green jersey of Ireland.

The nine times capped Irish International was delighted to be back at The Maws, where it all began for him. Speaking to the Kildare Nationalist after training Connors said, “When you're age grade growing up you dream of playing for Leinster, playing for Ireland and then to be able to come back here with Leinster and be amongst it all again is class.” 

“I remember being here as a young lad and my Dad was coaching me and some of the greatest memories gives you the love of the game and to kind of still be pursuing it. It is a dream, a childhood dream, really,” he added.

Connors still remains as an ambassador for the Skylarks team, a rugby for all team at North Kildare RFC. “The skylarks, they're a great team. It was set up a couple of years ago and it just keeps growing and growing. Every year now, in Barnhall there's a blitz and there's multiple blitzes around the country and the number of teams just keeps growing. The job that North Kildare have done with it to bring it from where it was to what it is now, it's a great setup and I love being with the Skylarks,” he said with pride.

Injuries have curtailed Will Connors over the last number of years, both with Leinster and with Ireland but he is looking forward to a lot of game time. 

“I just tried to stamp my mark back here in Leinster and really hit the ground running and then hopefully someday to get to put back on the Ireland jersey. It's a real dream come true to get back out there again,” he explained. 

Admitting that the injuries were tough on him both physically and mentally he said he couldn’t let them act like a crutch. 

“You need to use them as an early way to drive yourself to get better. You go to such a dark place with them you never really want to put yourself back in the same position again. Every time you get to go out playing in the Aviva, in the RDS, wherever it is, it's class and you have to love every minute of it,” he continued.

With Josh van der Flier and Scott Penny and the up-and-coming Liam Molony involved in Leinster, the Kildare native realises that competition is fierce for his position on the team. 

“You probably don't get as many minutes as most of the other clubs will give their players, but we make it work and when you get your chance you have to take it with two hands and really run with it.” 

With the URC firmly up and running and the ERC just around the corner Connors is looking forward to a busy schedule over the next number of months.

With so many Kildare players with the provinces Connors jokes that maybe “we should start pushing for Kildare to have its own team. Sport and Kildare has always been class, like Kildare and football. Growing up watching them through the years, unfortunately, recently, we have not been as successful as we wanted to be. So, to see in rugby where we're seeing a lot of people starting to thrive, like Mango (Diarmuid Mangan), Sam Prendergast, these lads are class players and it's great for the game,” he believes.