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Published 14:19 11 Feb 2020 GMT
Updated 14:19 11 Feb 2020 GMT
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Andrew Conway at the launch of Pinergy’s ‘Free Friday’ promotion which gives residential customers the opportunity to enjoy free electric vehicle charging every Friday throughout 2020 allowing users to start the weekend with a full charge. (Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan)[/caption]
Conway says he almost joined Munster when he was coming out of school at Blackrock College. He has fond memories of attending some big European games involving Munster with his father and the occasions obviously planted a seed.
Conway and his father toured the Munster facilities when he was a sixth year student and a top rugby prospect. He ultimately ended up going closer to home with Leinster and made his senior debut in February 2010.
Within two and a half years, though, he was fancying a chance of scenery. He was mulling a switch to Munster but Leinster legend Isa Nacewa attempted to intervene.
Conway was 21 when he decided to move and, sure enough, the 'Munster option came up'.
"I had a gut feeling to go," he says. "Isa even called me to one side and, I believe, he said, 'Look, I'm retiring at the end of the year'. This was his first retirement. Isa said, 'I'm retiring so there's going to be more opportunities'. "I said to him, 'It's not about that. I'm just going with my gut here and I feel it's the right thing to do'. "It wasn't an immediate success. My first year was a very tough one. I had a couple of injuries and not a lot of opportunities. Even looking back now, I was naive to the fact that if that hadn't went well over the first year or two, I would have been 22, 23 and there would be home-grown guys coming up in my position. I could have been out the door very quickly'."Luckily, Conway notes, his second season at Munster 'went pretty well' and business picked up from there. He has now scored 42 tries in 124 Munster appearances and has a host of fantastic scores that lit up big games for the provinces. "It was an interesting move," Conway concedes, "and, on paper, it probably didn't make much sense but, for me, I felt it was the right thing to do." The road less travelled, certainly, but one that has led to him being taken as one of Munster's own and, in time, into the national team.
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