'I immediately regretted that moment, that was the rude awakening'

Ultan Dillane roared with laughter when asked by RugbyPass what backline position he might play if La Rochelle ever allowed him the freedom to be a hybrid player such as the remarkable Levani Botia, the old-school Fijian back-rower who recently blitzed the Saracens breakdown as a midfielder.

“Ah, c’mon. Have you seen me play!” he chuckled. “I don’t think it would go too well. I don’t have that injection of pace like Levani. It’s unreal. To have a fella of his experience making it look that easy against such a good team like Saracens, he is great to have around. A unique player – we are lucky to have him.”

Lucky is also an apt description for La Rochelle being able to call on Dillane this season. The 29-year-old could have remained at Connacht, where he lingered for a decade, in the hope of forcing his way back onto the Ireland scene. He won just five of his 19 caps under Andy Farrell, the last in a July 2021 home clash with Japan, but there was always the chance of a recall if he hung around for longer in Galway.

When push came to shove, he decided his future was best served in France, drawing a line under his Test career and resigning himself to watching the reigning Grand Slam champions at the upcoming Rugby World Cup on his French doorstep as a fan rather than a participant. “It’s been so great to see them achieve what they have so far and it’s not the end of it.

“There is a chance I could have been there, that I could have partaken in that [the Six Nations title win] and it is bittersweet, but I get on with so many of those lads so well that I’m happy for them. It’s unreal and it’s great to see the buzz with the fans. It’s cool. Who knows with the World Cup coming? Things are looking pretty good. I will be watching intently.”

Right now, it’s the other way around, Irish fans watching Dillane intently to see if the Ronan O’Gara-coached La Rochelle might be coming to Dublin on May 20 to take on Leinster in a repeat of last year’s Heineken Champions Cup final. The French club host Exeter next weekend in Bordeaux the day after Leinster welcome Toulouse in the semi-finals.

So far, it’s been quite a campaign of discovery for Dillane. This weekend marked his 26th appearance, six more games than his previous seasonal best of 20 with Connacht in 2018/19. He is loving the excess exposure. “It’s mad,” he laughed heartedly about a season that could have another eight games if his club contests all the way for European and French league double honours.

Explaining why he feels so fresh when, from the outside looking in, he should be knackered by the increased demands, he added: “It feels like it is more demanding but because you get rested and depending on whether you are playing at nine o’clock on a Saturday or at nine o’clock on a Sunday, you will get a day or two off after that. They rest you and do it in a way that if you have played more than 30 minutes, you don’t have to be in until 11.30 on day one, whatever day you are back.

“Then when you are in that (first) day, your weights and your conditioning are optional. Different players have different needs that they will keep in check themselves. You do get a bit more choice in that sense but the S&Cs are also there to make sure you don’t push yourself too hard.

“They put a big onus on just trying to get you fit for the game sometimes and if that means you do a lot less running during the week or a lot less weights, which has happened on a number of weeks this season, then that is the key to staying fit for as many games as we have here.”

In all this activity, was there a momentary rude welcome to the Top 14? “Playing Toulouse away, I somehow was able to tackle (Emmanuel) Meafou. That gave me confidence that I can just carry straight at him and it will be the same result and sure, he absolutely destroyed me the second time. I don’t think he even made much of an effort, but my head whipped back. I immediately regretted that moment. That was the rude awakening.

“I have improved since the start of the season but maybe in my head, I don’t think I will ever be at my best. But I’m happy, I feel more comfortable in the position. We’re definitely getting nearer but I can always do better.”

Dillane was speaking to RugbyPass on the drive home last Tuesday, the time of the week that is typically La Rochelle’s ‘heavier day’ training. “There are some things different but there are a lot of similarities,” he said, comparing preparations at the club to what unfolds elsewhere. “Maybe the structure of how players get minded is a little bit different.

“Maybe there is a little more trust, some players don’t do as much gym as others here whereas in Ireland they would have been you all have to do it, they’re a bit stricter with the weights side of things probably because lads aren’t as big. But otherwise, it’s very similar. Most teams do things similarly or tweak things in little ways but everyone has pretty much got the right idea.”

That ‘right idea’ extended to La Rochelle converting specialist lock Dillane into a forward mostly packing down most at blindside. Just one of his 14 starts have been at second row, 12 instead coming at blindside – including versus Saracens – and one at openside. He wasn’t entirely ‘blindsided’ by the positional switch.

“I was told there was a good chance I would be filling in at back row at some stage because of who they had in the squad and because of how many players would potentially go to the national camp. I didn’t expect to play as much but I’m not complaining at all. I definitely didn’t take to it like a duck to water. It has taken a while to adapt but it is definitely enjoyable.

“It reminds me a bit of back in the Pat Lam days with Connacht when, as a lock, you were more on the edge, waiting for your chance to get on the ball and were running straight, running at a back and all that. You do get less carries (at La Rochelle) but part of that is the profile of players.

“We have so many forwards who want to carry and so many of them are good ball carriers. With our back row, you get a little less chance to carry but at the same time, it’s not that much of a problem when we have such good ball carriers. I’m just enjoying the different requirements.

“You are running a lot more but at the same time the scrums are easier. It doesn’t drain you half as much thankfully in the back row. And I have definitely got fitter throughout the year. It has just been a different year. I have had different things to think about on the pitch and it’s a nice challenge.”

Born in the Parisian outskirts in November 1993, Dillane lived in France for seven years until his late Irish mother moved to Tralee in Co Kerry when he was seven, the fork in the road that eventually led to the Connacht academy in 2012. This French origin left him confident he would immediately get back into the swing of the lingo upon arrival at La Rochelle, but his year of rediscovery has had amusing moments at his own expense. His pillow story is simply a rolling-on-the-floor-with-laughter type of yarn.

“The biggest shock was I just thought because I have French, my French is going to be great and I’m going to get on with everyone so easily. My French in my own head sounded like it was perfect, but the slang had changed. I was using slang that I used when I was seven – I sounded like a child for the first few weeks. Lads didn’t tell me for ages.

“And just in general I had forgotten loads. I had to think a lot more when speaking which I didn’t think I would have to do. That was the worst shock, and I’m still improving at that,” he said, going on to reveal his most mortifying linguistic gaffe. “Embarrassing. I did tackling with one of the players after training and I hadn’t worn my scrum cap and of course, the first time I hadn’t worn my scrum cap doing tackling, he basically carried pretty hard into me and just completely split my ear.

“He ripped my ear, like a good centimetre into my ear basically from how the contact happened. It was a really weird one, but I had to get my ear glued, go see the ear specialist. Long story short, because I thought ‘oreille’ means ear I thought ‘oreiller’ was specialist – but it was actually ‘pillow’. So when we were having lunch with the lads, I was going, ‘I have a meeting with my pillow’.

“A bunch of lads were just sitting there staring at me smiling, ‘Is he trying to say he is going for a nap or something?’ They were smiling and I wasn’t told until the next day that I was telling people I was going to see a pillow. There have been a few moments like that.”

Numerous rekindled memories too. “I have only been to Paris once since I got here, we have been that busy. But memories definitely come back and it’s products that you would eat and songs you heard back in the day. Like old classics would come on, and movies lads would talk about.

“For me, it’s all the older ones as it was nearly 20 years ago but it’s the food and the drinks that are unique to France and obviously the boulangeries and stuff. I’m really taking it for granted now because it is stuff I see every day, but the first couple of months it was just so cool to be always around.”

The fans have made quite the impression. “What has been the coolest, from day one I went to the boulangerie and I’d locals saying welcome here and hope you can do this and hope it goes well. Some fans have given me real plush toys and mugs of me with my photo and stuff. The fans are so passionate and kind to the new players. The support they have for us every home game is incredible.

“The Saracens win was pretty big, but the Bordeaux performance in the Matmut Stadium was unreal. I feel it is nearly unfair us getting Matmut again (for the Exeter semi-final) because it will feel like we are at home, but I’m sure it is going to be a very tough game. We just loved the support there the last time and personally, I thought the crowd was unreal – you could barely hear each other because there were 42,000 for a derby which was impressive.”

Impressive as well is the prospect of the upcoming French World Cup. “It’s crazy, it’s just the country is so big as well, so many teams and so many regions. Living outside of France, you think of a few cities, but there are towns 20 minutes from me that are bigger than Galway that you have never heard of.

“There is that times 100s. It’s just a much bigger country, economy and there is just so much going on. I reckon the World Cup is going to be crazy, there are going to be so many cool grounds and cool places to see that as a foreigner that you will have never heard of. It will be a pretty cool time to visit. It should be a good one.”

It was Dillane’s late mother’s wish that he would one day play in the Top 14, and he still has local connections through his Parisian-based father and other relatives. “I’d only be delighted to have her [his late mother] visit and experience it here,” he said, glad to have fulfilled his mother’s aspiration of him returning to play in the country where he was born. “Definitely, I’m delighted I have been given the chance – to be able to come here at all is really nice. But we haven’t achieved anything yet. There is still a good job to be done.”

Who are the personalities driving La Rochelle on from within? “We all get on but wholeheartedly everyone would say Uini Atonio and Will (Skelton) are two of our bigger characters, two lads who always get the license to joke around because they always turn up regardless. It’s funny. Even on game day, most of the lads would be pretty serious and then you have those two laughing around and joking. It breaks the mood a bit. They are great to have around.”

On days off, that duo is also to the fore. “I’m pretty relaxed, I wouldn’t be up to too much on days off. You do the odd recovery, but we have had a routine for the last few months of doing a sauna. Will Skelton bought a sauna, so we have a little sauna club going and that’s been the most fun on days off. It’s great craic.”

Long-term, the hope is to enjoy as stellar an experience as La Rochelle assistant Donnacha Ryan when he switched from Ireland to extend his playing career in France. “Yeah, that’s the plan. Unfortunately, you can’t predict the future, but I’m naturally going to be thinking I’ll play ’til then as long as I’m playing my best. That is a goal.”

In the meantime, there is a promising Propadz shoulder pads business to promote with former Connacht teammate Sean O’Brien. “I have a history with both my shoulders and I definitely don’t want another injury. From wearing the custom pads for so many years now, I feel like it just gives me a bit of confidence knowing that I have this gel pad to absorb some shock and yeah, you just feel a little more confident. For me, it’s one of those one percenters that I think I need to have to play better.

“It’s been really cool to see lads genuinely wanting a pair. The whole concept of Propadz is you could basically wear a vest and you can slip in or take out any of the gel pads that you don’t need. Luckily lads seem to be liking it. It’s only the start but I got on board because purely of how much I thought it was needed in rugby. It is such a comfortable thing to wear. Hearing other players speak so well of them is so satisfying. It definitely has a place in world rugby and it’s definitely got a good future.”

Just like Dillane with La Rochelle.