Fuelling Flannery’s blond ambition

Eyes There was cyes were raised in Munster when Jerry Flannery was not initially selected for the Irish squad in the autumn internationals. However, the Munster hooker is more concerned about his day job; everything else is a bonus, he tells Declan Colley.

PERHAPS it is just something about blonds. Ask Schalk Burger or Jean Pierre Rives. Is it their flamboyance, or is it the colour of their hair that stands them out from the pack?

Jerry Flannery’s flaxen mane stands out from the pack too, but modesty makes him wave away comparisons with Burger and Rives.

Sitting in an empty stand at Thomond Park he points to the spot on the terraces where as a schoolboy he dreamed of playing on the fabled sod. Tomorrow, he gets his opportunity to feature in the Munster fairytale in front of legendary support.

“It’s massive,” he reflects.

“When you’re young you take that sort of intensity for granted because you’re on the terrace too. But when you run out on the pitch, it means so much more. It really is very different when you’re on the pitch.”

But how different will it be tomorrow?

“It’s make or break time yet again,” Flannery says.

“We’ve obviously analysed the first game and hopefully there are things which we can exploit. They have a very big pack and they play to their strengths and their No 10 can move the ball as well as kick it. But we are going to concentrate more on doing ourselves justice, because we feel we didn’t at Edgeley Park.”

Flannery recalled the game-turning moment when Sililo Martens got the jump on Tomas O’Leary after the ball squirted from a badly-controlled scrum to score a vital try.

“Yes, there is a really fine line there - the scoreline in that game flattered them a little bit.

“At this level, little things like that turn games. If a ball squirts out, you’ve got to be the first one to react or you cannot afford to offload ball if it’s not on.”

He agrees Munster have matured since that game and while there have been hiccups, they have added more to their attacking arsenal with the impressive development of Barry Murphy and Ian Dowling.

“We are still very far from the finished product, but at least we’re going the right way and there has been clear progress since the first Heineken Cup game against Sale.”

The current season has been the making of Flannery, and while he acknowledges that had Frankie Sheahan not been injured he would not have got his break, he has taken the opportunity in considerable style.

And some would argue the Irish management were tardy in not recognising the fact.

“Chances are rare enough in the Munster side and when you do get a chance you have to grab it with both hands.

“In addition to that, at the back of your head you know that once you break into the Munster team, you’re close to national selection.

“That was not something I was thinking about too much because I was more concentrated on the Munster job. Having waited so long to break in, I just wanted to do well there. The Irish thing happened so fast I never got a chance to get too tense about it or to look forward too much.

“People said to me I must have been pissed off not to have been selected for the New Zealand or Australian games, but that was so far from my mind, I’d never thought about it. I was delighted to get called into the squad when I did, but I’m not looking towards national selection; I just want to do my job for Munster.

“It’s hard enough to get into the team and when you get in there it’s tough to keep your place. If I do the bread and butter stuff for Munster, anything else is a bonus.”

Last week’s Castres game, Flannery says, was a good one to win and an even better one from which to take a bonus point.

“They didn’t have a full team out and I wouldn’t like the supporters to get too excited about it.

“We’re still far from the finished article. Sale is going to be a massive, massive game and if people want to judge us, then they should wait until after that game. They are the top team in England and they are going to be a huge test.

“If you don’t do the business, then you don’t deserve to be there. We’re just looking forward to getting in there and tearing into them,” he says.

But what of their forwards and the Sale scrum and line-out? Much has been made of the Manchester side’s strengths in this regard, but what is Flannery’s take on them?

“The scrum is one of their strengths, but don’t underestimate our own scrum either. Sky Sports has made a big deal of their scrum strengths, but while we recognise them, we’re also anxious to show them what we can do. There is a lot of media hype, but you do your talking on the pitch.”

Flannery’s blond mane will undoubtedly be at the centre of the action but, team player that he is, he will only downplay the hype.

“Listen,” he says quietly, “this is just another game, even if there is a lot at stake. We’re capable of winning and that’s what we want to do.”