He has impressed again, earning a first international call-up with Ireland, and explained that he had really benefited from the leadership role.
He said: "This year for me personally, being captain of the team, I got a lot of learnings from that.
"Not just looking after yourself but looking after other players and also younger players and coaches.
"As the games went on and we were in the slump, different people stepped up and took the bull by the horns.
"It's been good on a personal level but you can't really reflect that into the team because everyone is disappointed. If the team doesn't do good and you're the captain, you're not doing good.
"Ending up sixth (in the Guinness PRO12 table) was a big disappointment. It's not where the team wanted to end up but I think we had a lot of stress, anxiety and a lot of new learnings and challenges.
"It was very tough. In the end we were just happy to finish on a high and gather ourselves for next season."
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Guinness PRO12 Munster News
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