Patience pays off for happy hooker Flannery

JERRY FLANNERY has found that patience is a virtue that eventually gets its reward.

Flannery, aged 27, is the new Irish hooker. He’s had to bide his time to make the Six Nations grade, but it was well worth the wait. He enters the cauldron of international rugby against Italy at Lansdowne Road this Saturday on the back of 16 minutes experience in the autumn as a replacement against Romania and a few Heineken Cup outings for Munster.

Sceptics might say that his first start in the Irish jersey is down to good and bad fortune - his opportunism when Frankie Sheahan suffered a long-term injury before Christmas.