John Cooney - ‘I’m at my best when I’ve got nothing to lose’

Ulster scrum-half John Cooney: ‘My career is probably a bit of a circle. It’s not a straight line at all’. Photo:David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Ulster scrum-half John Cooney: ‘My career is probably a bit of a circle. It’s not a straight line at all’. Photo:David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

John Cooney

Ulster scrum-half John Cooney: ‘My career is probably a bit of a circle. It’s not a straight line at all’. Photo:David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Brendan Fanning Twitter Email

April 04 2021 02:30 AM

It wasn’t a great look for Ulster when they managed to win eight on the bounce from the start of the season and then lost the opening two rounds of the Heineken Champions Cup. Tells you something about the flat track that is the Guinness PRO14 versus the peaks and troughs of the top European game, and about Ulster’s capacity to change gear.

You’d think there’s not much they can do about that now, but tonight’s Challenge Cup tie in the Stoop should be looked on as a bonus. There may not be a crowd but it will feel like Europe’s premier competition. And if it’s as entertaining — and profitable for Ulster — as the back-to-back ties in the Heineken pool stage last season then it will be worth watching.

For John Cooney, there is an especially appealing look to it. He’s back in harness and playing well again. Which was not the case when Dan McFarland dropped him for the PRO14 semi-final against Leinster. Given the way he had filled the hole left by Ruan Pienaar, it was unthinkable Cooney would ever be gazumped.

“Yeah, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t test that positivity,” he says. “I did go round feeling sorry for myself for quite a while. But going back, it was probably similar to that last shoulder injury in Connacht. That’s when I found all that (positive attitude) and learned a lot from that.

“So I kind of attributed similar feelings — and kind of had to strip it all back and probably rediscover some of those things that helped me get through it (the injury). And yeah, it did take me quite a few weeks and it was probably the hardest time I’ve had in rugby in several years — to put the Six Nations and the autumn series on top of that felt like it was adding fuel to the fire. But you come out the other side and I feel like I’ve played well since. My career probably is a bit of a circle. It’s not really a straight line at all.”

He’s no worse off for that experience. We remember on a steamy afternoon in Tokyo in 2017, Cooney was sent out to the media zone after winning his first cap. Ireland weren’t stuck for nines at the time. Conor Murray was away with the Lions in New Zealand, while Luke McGrath and Kieran Marmion were in Japan with Cooney.

Still, we went away that day thinking we’d be seeing a lot more of him. He was preparing for the move north, and with Leinster and Connacht in the rear-view mirror, sounded like it was all working out at last. Yet we didn’t see as much of him as he hoped or we expected. In the intervening time he has learned not to try and reinvent the wheel if a few spokes get loose.

“I think I’d put a lot of pressure on myself over lockdown to come out and play as well as I was before, and I think sometimes when you do that you probably force things and I probably did in a couple of those games,” he says of the road travelled last year. “I think with all that happening it felt like everything was compounded. Everything was taken away from me and I felt I had nothing to lose any more. That’s probably me when I’m at my most dangerous, when I’ve not much else to lose any more. I went out and played with a smile on my face and kind of played the way I was before, so I think that was mainly it. I said, ‘I’ve nothing to lose here, go out and enjoy it.’”

Cooney’s personal record against Harlequins is good. He loves playing against English sides and has got full value from his battles with Quins scrumhalf Danny Care, whom he rates. Scott Steele, however, will be wearing the shirt for this one — not quite like for like. Former Munster player Jack Stafford will make his senior debut when replacing Steele off the bench. Quins have a raft of frontliners missing from that last-gasp defeat a week ago, away to Premiership leaders Bristol, with rotation the name of the game.

“We’ve had them two of the last three years in the Champions Cup so we know them quite well and they’ve improved and probably should have won at the weekend and let it get away at the end,” Cooney says.

“In saying that we want to win trophies. We were disappointed not getting a play-off in the PRO14 after only losing two games so we are keen to win whatever we can. If we win we’ve (either) Dragons or Northampton, which will be another big game, so it’s important that we compete and all these weeks do seem a lot different when hearing the European music earlier.”

The tune is the same whether it’s the Champions or Challenge Cup, and right now Ulster have a shot at turning the setbacks this season into something better. When Cooney is in this mood they have a chance of doing that.

Harlequins: T Green; L Northmore, J Lang, P Lasike, N Earle; B Herron, S Steele; S Garcia Botta, E Elia, W Collier, H Tizard, G Hammond, A White, T Lawday (capt), J Kenningham. Replacements: G Head, J Els, S Kerrod, T Cavubati, M Jurevicius, J Stafford, B Tapuai, R Chisholm.

Ulster: M Lowry; R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, J Cooney; E O’Sullivan, R Herring, M Moore, A O’Connor, K Treadwell, S Reidy, N Timoney, J Murphy. Replacements: J Andrew, A Warwick, T O’Toole, C Izuchukwu, M Rea, A Mathewson, I Madigan, E McIlroy.

Referee: R Poite (France)

Harlequins v Ulster, BT Sport, 8.0pm