James Coughlan is into his third season playing rugby in France and having the time of his life. It is tough going though.
The Cork native was tipping along with Dolphin in the Ulster Bank League but professional rugby looked to have passed him by. He kept showing up and putting in the big performances. His Munster debut came three months shy of his 26th birthday and he never looked back.
Coughlan made 139 senior appearances for Munster and helped them to Heineken Cup and Magners League success. He captained Ireland Wolfhounds and could have ploughed on at Munster until an all too tempting off to play for Section Paloise [Pau] in France arrived.
Coughlan is in top form for Pau but concedes it took a few months to feel properly settled in France. He told The Crooked Feed he is still trying to get his head, and body, around life in the longest-running league in world rugby:
“It’s extremely physical and the pace of the game is very quick. You have so many international players over here now that the pace can be relentless. We had 16 weeks of games in a row there.
“It can be very, very relentless. It is very, very relentless. Everyone’s home can be a fortress and the teams at the top are the ones that can pick up a few games away from home.”
Coughlan, who now lines out with the likes of Conrad Smith, Colin Slade and Steffon Armitage, offered a decent reason as to why Racing 92, Munster’s Champions Cup opponents this weekend, are struggling in the league and in Europe this season. He commented:
“It’s so long, the season. Especially during a World Cup year. It does have an impact on the following year.
“Racing having so many people involved in the World Cup and then going so far last year – I think [the Top 14] final was the 25th of June. We were back in pre-season when they played their last game. We were back a week at that stage.
“To put that much of a burden on people, then you have your four [pre-season] games in July and season starting in mid August. To be consistent, do recruitment and to get them recuperated… it is going to be difficult.”
June 26 2015 to June 24 2016 [364 days] and June 18 2016 to June 4 2017 [351 days]. They are some long flipping seasons.
And GAA players thought they had it bad…
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