‘Everyone’s in this together’

Mullingar man and London Irish rugby star Conor Gilsenan is glad to be home – although home is nothing like he’s ever seen before.

Since his return from the UK, the former Leinster and Connacht flanker, son of Con and Joan Gilsenan, has been holed up in two weeks’ self-isolation – as all returning exiles have been asked to do – in an apartment above his parents’ popular gastro-pub on Dominick Street.

This time, it’s different. The normal din of chat and merriment in Con’s is silent; its iconic front doors are closed, and Conor (27), along with his girlfriend Megan, is into the second week of looking out onto Mullingar’s spookily empty main thoroughfare.

He’s happy though, as everyone seems to be doing what they’re supposed to do. “A van selling fish pulled up on to Dominick Street earlier today, and everybody buying from it looked to be keeping to the social distancing measures,” he said.

It’s a big difference from London, where he and Megan have a small apartment amid the tightly-packed neighbourhoods of the British capital.

“London seems to be tracking a steeper curve than Italy at the moment, and it all depends on how the NHS deals with the surge,” Conor, a former Irish U20 international, explained.

“Part of the reason why I left London was that I didn’t like how the response to the outbreak was being handled. A couple of weeks ago, you had Boris Johnson going around shaking hands with coronavirus patients; now he has the virus himself, and the city’s in a sort of soft lockdown.

“London’s an incredible place, but it’s also a melting pot of people with different agendas and different outlooks. Some people there don’t even look at the news, so in some ways it’s not surprising that the response to the virus was slow.”

So Conor is happy to be back on his native sod, where he believes that government and public health officials have, from the beginning, adopted a more proactive and soundly thought-out approach to Covid-19.

At the same time, he’s cut adrift from the sport which, as he said in a recent interview with Mullingar resident Garry Doyle for The42.ie, is in every fibre of his being. “I love what I do; I want to make that point,” he said. “No one forced me to do this. This is what I’ve always wanted… what you don’t want is for it to ever end.”

However, rugby came to a sudden end in recent weeks. London Irish, promoted to Premiership Rugby last year, seemed to be building up a head of steam in February before the coronavirus outbreak came to Europe. With rugby activity suspended until at least April 14, the west London-based Exiles sit two points off the European qualifying places in English rugby’s top flight.

“We’re due back in on April 14, but it’s hard to see that happening. The RFU are adamant that the league will finish, but I’m not so sure,” said Conor, who has captained London Irish during past British and Irish Cup campaigns.

“Everyone’s contract is up on July 1, so technically they have to have it finished. But April 14 may be optimistic, given that it’s imperative for rugby sides to have a good two weeks together to condition as a group, otherwise the sport becomes dangerous.

“I’ve been carrying an injury since November, so in some ways I’ve become accustomed to being away from rugby. It’s been challenging to adapt, but the rest of the lads have to go cold turkey now.”

“Unprecedented” 25 percent pay cuts have been taken by Conor and his teammates, as one of many measures to adjust to the deepening crisis. To maintain squad cohesion, coach Declan Kidney brings the entire roster together for regular group calls on Zoom, and the club physio is in regular contact with Conor to see how his recovery is progressing.

“With some jobs it’s quite easy to work remotely; rugby, not so much,” he explained. “We are improvising and doing our best. I’m doing body weight, squats, lunges, lots of running – getting out to the country as much as I can, where I can run on my own.

“What I’m finding is that I’m losing a bit of weight. My biggest challenge as a rugby player has always been putting size on and maintaining size, given the position I play in.”

While in the context of his recovery, Conor may benefit from top-flight rugby having some downtime, he regrets the loss of momentum which London Irish enjoyed in January and February.

“We were on a fairly good run, beating Harlequins, Gloucester and Northampton – and two of those wins were away from home,” continued Conor, who is one of the Exiles’ longest serving players. “We lost 36-26 to Wasps, and we really should have won that one. It would have left us sitting in the top six.”

With the extent of the growing crisis becoming clearer, Kidney’s men suffered a 39-0 hammering at the hands of Sale Sharks on March 1, before the championship was suspended. But for a newly promoted side, sitting two points off the European Champions Cup places and seven off the playoff spots isn’t at all bad.

“We’re going well though. We had a very strong side coming up from the Championship, and they were holding their own until we recruited some more top class internationals late last year – the likes of Sean O’Brien and Paddy Jackson, [New Zealander] Waisake Naholo, [Australians] Sekope Kepu and Adam Coleman.”

But for now it’s recovery, and hunkering down in Mullingar until the worst of the Covid-19 outbreak is over.

Aside from getting over injury and maintaining the body shape of a flanker, Conor has plenty to keep him focused and broadening his future horizons.

A Commerce graduate from UCD with a Masters in leadership and management from Northumbria University, Conor is pursuing a part-time course in digital marketing. The Clongowes Wood College alumnus – who skippered his alma mater to Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup success in 2011 – is also in business with a friend developing a start-up called Doubletapp.

“Doubletapp is basically an app which rewards people for posting on social media about a brand or business,” he explained. “For anyone who’s familiar with the powers of Instagram or Facebook, you’ll know that organic social media exposure is eight times more powerful and valuable than a paid-for organic post.

“Take Con’s for example. You might be in Con’s some night having a drink, and you take a photo with yourself and a friend. You post that photo on Instagram or Facebook, and it’s liked and commented on by a number of people. The idea behind Doubletapp is that if the social media post gets enough traction, then you’ll get a free pint next time you go to the pub.

“In that way, it’s bringing the customer back to the pub and generating more business for it.”

At the moment, Doubletapp is being trialled in Sheffield, and has a number of paying clients in the hospitality sector, as well as 10,000 users. Watch this space; although with marketing and development costs high, Conor says that it will be a while before the app reaches the next level.

Conor misses the familiar hustle and bustle of the pub, seeing old friends and even face-to-face contact with his parents during his period of isolation.

“It’s not ideal for my parents having the front doors of the pub shut for so long. They’ve got a lot of staff sitting at home, and I’m thinking of them all,” he said.

“But everyone’s in this together. Nobody’s dodging it, and we’ve just got to stick together as a community and a town and ride out this crisis.”