O’Callaghan aims to take chance with both hands

ALTHOUGH it’s being portrayed as a straight swap between Donncha O’Callaghan for the injured Paul O’Connell in Ireland’s second-row, Eddie O’Sullivan hinted strongly during the week that the Cork Con man would have been chosen no matter what.

So Malcolm O’Kelly has benefited most from O’Connell’s absence and how the new second-row partnership fares will be one of the more interesting aspects of tomorrow’s clash with Wales at Lansdowne Road.

O’Callaghan and O’Kelly are aware that O’Connell will be fully fit when Scotland come to Lansdowne Road in two weeks and accordingly, the pressure on both men to deliver a big performance is greater than ever. They will be expected to give Ireland a line-out edge against the none too inspiring Welsh partnership of Ian Gough and Robert Sidoli, although O’Callaghan doesn’t necessarily see things in that light.

“We’re expecting a huge physical game from the Grand Slam champions,” he insists. “We’ll really need to be in top form to live with a team like that. They’ve just lost their coach and their captain and I suppose it’s something that can work two ways. It can galvanise a squad as well when everyone’s pinning you into a corner, you can gel together and push on for each other and I think that will be the case with the Welsh lads.

“From knowing a few of them, they’re not the kind to sit around and moan and groan. They get on with things and while it’s disappointing to lose a good man like Mike Ruddock, the squad he has left is good enough and the players must stand up and perform. I believe they’ll do that.”

The question of unforced errors has become almost synonymous with this Ireland side with the first 50 minutes against France a prime example. O’Callaghan watched most of the mayhem from the Stade de France bench and while he has sympathy for those most involved, he also declares that “you have to stop it at some stage. We have to get tougher on each other in terms of not accepting those mistakes and demanding higher standards. That’s been the case all week in training, fellas have piped up when things were going well and when things weren’t and hopefully that will carry through to Sunday.

“The last 30 minutes in Paris were incredible, I nearly needed a spare set of lungs at the end. I was chatting to a few of the other lads and they agreed it was one of the fastest games they’ve played but that’s the thing at this level. It’s a step up and it’s only when you’ve experienced that kind of stuff that you realise international rugby is totally different from club or provincial rugby.”

This will be Donncha’s fourth appearance against Wales, though two of the previous three were as replacements. He and his team-mates were well and truly beaten in Cardiff last year when they were going for the Triple Crown and he admits “it was gutting.”

“You’ll always have disappointments in your career but that was so tough to take. We were standing there on the pitch like guys at a party we weren’t invited to. Full credit to them, they played better rugby on the day and we know if we don’t arrive locked, loaded and ready to go that we could be in trouble again.”

O’Callaghan is surely right when bemoaning O’Connell’s loss but it will be the last thing on his mind once the whistle goes, because this is an opportunity he must take if the Munster partnership is to be transferred to the international scene on a permanent basis.

“You never want to get in because somebody is injured and it’s disappointing from that point of view,” he says. “But that also opens a door for me. Paul has set a standard for second-rows in the country the way he’s playing and so that’s the bar we have to reach on Sunday. His last two performances have been outstanding and he’s going to be a huge loss.

“He’s something special. When I talk about Paul, I would never put myself in the same bracket because I think it would be disrespectful. He’s a world-class player. It’s a very competitive area and that’s what’s great about it. Paul and myself with Munster, we’re lucky to have such good competition from Trevor (Hogan) and Micko (Driscoll). You know if you don’t play well that you’re going to be out and that would be fair enough because they’re such good players.

If you were to pick out a Munster player this year, you wouldn’t go a long way from Micko. The time he’s spent with Perpignan has brought him back so fresh. He was always a great player and maybe things didn’t go his way, Paulie and myself got in and started playing well, and even looking further down the line, there’s Donncha Ryan, Shane O’Connor and others who are going to be clipping at our heels.”

After a glittering schools career at CBC it was only natural that O’Callaghan would set his sights on a place in the Munster senior team, but he quickly realised it wasn’t going to be that easy. Mick Galwey and John Langford were firmly installed in the second-row and even though Donncha made the bench for the 2000 Heineken Cup final against Northampton, there was also competition from contemporaries O’Driscoll and O’Connell. It’s been like that ever since.

“Competition breeds success,” he says.

“John Langford set a standard with line-outs when he came in and we’re all very grateful for that. He brought the ACT Brumbies mentality to our line-outs. We change them for every opposition, we’re not complacent, our lifts are good and everyone is willing to put themselves out of the comfort zone. I know teams where players say ‘I don’t lift, I don’t jump’ but that’s not the case with us and everyone does as much as they can. For me, it’s the respect of the other players that I want, to be able to look around the dressingroom afterwards and feel I haven’t left any of them down.”

Despite all he picked up from Langford, Galwey and the rest, O’Callaghan goes even closer to home to speak of the man who had an even greater influence on his development into a Lions Test second-row forward.

“Ken Murphy would have been the person I learned most from playing club rugby at Cork Con,” he says.

“He was always great for me at the training sessions, he always made time for me, and it was something I was very grateful for.”

A sign as to how the powerfully built O’Callaghan - 6 ft 6 ins, 17st 4lbs - has developed technically as well as physically comes from his dismissal of any suggestions that he might still be learning his craft: “I think that stage is behind me and I’m nearly sick of picking up things from people. There’s a stage when you must push on and that’s definitely been the case for the past two years.”