Jared Payne: 'i Can't Wait To Get Back Out There For Ulster'

Jared Payne was handed one of the most daunting challenges in Irish sport – to wear the legendary 13 shirt made famous by Brian O’Driscoll. Being the man to have that number in the Ireland team was always going to bring huge pressure to the player who took over.

Six months on from his debut, with six caps and a 6 Nations Championship win, achieved in the most extraordinary circumstances, Payne is rightly pleased with how his international career has begun:

“It has been an unreal ride,” he says. “It is everything that I hoped for and much more. That last day, the way it all went with winning the Scottish game and then having to watch the England game was just unreal.

“Then, having the trophy presented at Murrayfield in front of thousands of Irish fans that had stayed behind was class! It was such a strange day. We didn’t really celebrate beating Scotland too much. Words can’t describe it - it was just crazy.”

Payne was the subject of criticism from one TV analyst who described him as a ‘second-rate foreigner’.  Having scored a crucial try in the win over Scotland, no-one is critisicing him now.

Payne says: “Scoring a try is always good. It is what you play rugby for as a back, to score tries and enjoy yourself. It was good to score a try and contribute to the total that we needed. In terms of the criticism that came my way – I didn’t read much into the comments that were made. What was nice was seeing all the support from fans and the media that I got after it was said.”



The try and Payne’s role in the 6 Nations victory also helped vindicate Ireland Head Coach, Joe Schmidt’s decision to pick him:

“Joe has been great,” reveals Payne. ”He is a great coach to work under. He tells you what he wants and has shown a lot of faith in me - that is all you can ask for in a coach. He demands a lot and he worked Robbie (Henshaw) and I pretty hard – but that’s great. That’s what you want if you are going to get better. Its good to have the backing of your coach and you just have to repay that faith with your performances each week and that’s why it was pleasing to finish the 6 Nations on a high.”

Having had a near perfect start to his international career, Payne is now back with Ulster and is focused on delivering for the province in the next four crucial regular-season games:

He says: “It feels it has been that long since I have been here. It’s good to be back. The guys have been going well – they have had one or two slip-ups but we are in a great position. It’s up to the players coming back in to contribute, fit in as quickly as possible and try to remember all the calls. I can’t wait to get out there, it’s going to be good.

“I was sitting last week thinking it was cool winning something, but that gives you an appetite to win more. Winning that 6 Nations gave me a big incentive to win another trophy or two. It whets the appetite and I am hugely motivated for the games coming up.”