Big display against Munster could see Thornbury make Ireland’s summer squad

ROLL back the clock to the start of March and Connacht lock Gavin Thornbury delivered his best performance in the green shirt against Munster. Tonight (Friday) he is back at Thomond Park and hoping to leave with a victory instead of a player of the match medal.

The Connacht second row was inspired that night. A couple of blocked kicks, a stolen lineout and two turnovers were the standout stats, but the 20-17 loss was excruciating. The after-match photos and interviews suggest as much too.

Three wins in a row had set Andy Friend’s side up nicely for that trip to Limerick, but this week Connacht are instead chewing on a 50-21 reversal at home to Leinster last weekend. The mood in the camp is a mix of disappointment and hunger to get back on the pitch, and Thornbury just wants to copy and paste his last Thomond Park performance.

“Yeah it was good. A lot of things came off for me that day that mightn't come off on another night. Obviously I was fully gutted with the result, I thought we put ourselves in a position where we could have won the game, unfortunately it didn’t come through. Personally, some stuff came off that I was really happy with, but there is lots for us to keep working on,” said Thornbury, who will make his 20th appearance this season.

“Going away to Thomond you have to do it for 80 minutes, if you don’t do it for 80 minutes it’s going to be a long night. That’s where we need to get our heads right, it is all about attitude at the end of the day.

“It’s wanting to stop the bloke in front of you. That’s what it comes down to mostly. Look it is a challenge, it’ll be a massive challenge and a massive opportunity for us to get ourselves right.

“I think you can have all the technical aspects of maul defence, but at the end of the day you have to want to put your head somewhere it probably shouldn’t be. That’s what we have to do.

“We talked a good bit about it this morning. Our meetings were obviously tough, the review was tough, but we have got to park it and make sure we bring the attitude first and foremost this Friday.”

Earlier this week there was confirmation that his second row partner Quinn Roux will leave the province at the end of the season, and Thornbury thanked the Ireland international for helping him settle at the province when he arrived back in 2017.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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