O’Connell keen to make amends in Castres rematch

PULLING off try-saving tackles should hardly be the responsibility of a second row forward.

More often than not, they have more pressing matters to deal with. However, Paul O’Connell believes he was “the main culprit” in the move started by scrum-half Alexandre Albouy that led to David Bory’s all-important try for Castres against Munster on Friday night.

Typical of the man, O’Connell ignored the fact that others were exposed more cruelly and insisted: “I hold my hands up. That can’t happen again. He (Albouy) ran at me and threw a dummy. It would have been the easiest tackle in the world if I hadn’t taken the dummy. It may have been a lapse in concentration. It’s a mistake I’m not supposed to make as an international and I made it and essentially it cost us the game.

“Hopefully, I won’t make any more mistakes like that on Saturday or we’ll be out of the competition.”

O’Connell pinpoints what must be done to retrieve the situation.

“Getting quick ball is going to be massive. We played our best rugby when we ran hard, got quick ball and shifted it and used our big ball carriers. We were struggling to get quick ball last week. They were very physical, far more so than ourselves. We were away from home and back after three or four weeks with Ireland and just didn’t perform. We didn’t produce the goods and if we do that again this week, we’re out of the tournament.

“I’d like to think the national guys and the guys on the team are too good to follow one bad performance with another. We never put two bad performances together.”

Few people appreciate more than O’Connell that deeds more than aspirations are all that matter on such important occasions and is quick to play down the Thomond Park factor.

O’Connell says: “It’s a must win game. If we were playing in Perpignan or Castres this week, we have to win, that’s all there is to it. Having the crowd and the stuff about French teams being bad travellers, that won’t do anything for us unless we show up, which we didn’t do last week.”

O’Connell and his teammates, however, will take solace from the number of times the Thomond Park factor has lifted them and also how they have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

“We seem to find ourselves in this situation every year, where we have a match to save our season,” he mused.

“The last two Gloucester games have been the prime example. Two years ago we were playing to save our home record more than to qualify. We played very well and did qualify.

“Last year was very much the same, we hadn’t performed well in Kingsholm but we picked up a bonus point which helped. Now we’re in much the same situation.”

The war of words between players has added considerable spice to the return on Saturday. Mario Ledesma had a go after the recent Ireland-Argentina game while Paul Volley got in on the act during and after last week’s clash. O’Connell doesn’t seem unduly perturbed.

“It’s not as antagonistic as it may seem,” he said. “Everyone is very competitive at this level. People can be bloody-minded in pursuit of winning. Once it appears in the papers .... I had words with somebody at training today, the fact he’s a teammate means it won’t appear in the papers. It blows over. It’s been made into a big deal but I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

Perhaps, but the fact remains that what Ledesma had to say annoyed senior people associated with the Irish team and the way Volley taunted Ronan O’Gara has left a sour taste in the mouths of many Munster men.

It is apparent and understandable that the management and players should try to keep a lid on things going into such an important fixture and O’Connell is no different.

“Paul Volley is a very vocal, very talkative character,” he says.

“He has come from a team of winners like Wasps, they won the European Cup and the English League last year so I suppose he knows what you need to do to win and he’s trying to put that into play with Castres.

“I don’t think he was trying to get Ronan, they just had words. There was plenty of sledging going on during the game but that happens in every sport. It’s all part and parcel of rugby.”

But such calls can be counter-productive.

“I’d like to think a guy roaring a bit of abuse at me or making comments at me after a game wouldn’t bother me and I’m sure Rog feels the same. If that’s what he wants to do, it’s what he wants to do and it’s not any big deal, certainly not as big a deal as some people are trying to make out of it.”

O’Connell’s and Munster’s focus will not be affected come kick-off time on Saturday.

“We learned a lesson in Castres, we didn’t get going and when we did, we conceded penalties and they killed us. A lot of lessons were learned.”