Wallace relishing the hype
While it was a day that will live with him forever, he’s also expecting something special when Munster return to European action in front of a full house at Lansdowne Road.
A couple of years ago he contracted chicken pox before the semi-final against London Wasps and missed that amazing afternoon in Dublin 4. Ever since he’s been hearing stories of the marvellous atmosphere generated that day.
He recounts how his then back-row colleague Denis Leamy told him that as the bus made its way to the ground through platoons of the red army, Leamy turned to Peter Stringer and asked if it was like this for internationals.
The response was obvious and that little cameo has Wallace trying to picture what it’s going to be like this time. Mind you, he should have a fair inkling given that he has played in two finals and a couple of semi-finals, but with a “home” game attracting a crowd of 48,500, it sure is going to be just a little different.
“There is huge hype, the vast majority of the crowd are going to be supporting us and it will be a great atmosphere,” he says.
“2004 was one of the downers in my career. This time it will be equally difficult for the team and I think it’s very much a 50-50 game. The side with the right attitude is going to be the winner and I certainly would take a one-point win.”
This latest test of David’s many qualities could hardly come at a better time for the powerful 29-year-old flanker, who demonstrated his well-being with his performances in the Six Nations and is now turning attention to this challenge.
There is no more competitive area in Irish and Munster rugby than the back row and it took a combination of injuries to rivals and his own outstanding performances to enable him to regain his place in both sides. In fact, he didn’t play in the first Heineken Cup game at all, not even when Alan Quinlan was badly injured and was replaced not by Wallace but by second row Trevor Hogan.
“It looked like it could have been a bad season for me again. But then poor old Alan [Quinlan] got injured and it all changed for me. I was happy with my form from the end of last season and the beginning of this one and felt I was playing good stuff. I was disappointed not being involved away to Sale but I tried to keep up the form and work on certain things. Thankfully, it all went extremely well.”
In typically unassuming fashion, Wallace talks about how great it was to snatch a bonus point at the death at home to Sale without mentioning it was he who scored the vital fourth try.
The fact that he timed his arrival so well to score that try was glowing testimony to the fact he can operate at least as successfully at number seven as in any other of the back-row positions. He underlined this point over the course of the Six Nations Championship while continuing his trademark open field charges. Nevertheless, when his Munster performances finally forced Eddie O’Sullivan’s hand, it was with trepidation he undertook the challenge.
“Any time I’ve got back over the past few years, the feeling was, this could be my last chance, but I think maybe that’s the way you should approach every game because it could be your last chance,” he reasons.
“So you’ve just got to go out there and seize the day and give it your all.
“I always felt we had it in us to have a good season. We had shown we could be a class team against class opposition and it gave us a lot of confidence.
“I suppose I was only there for the party for the 2004 Triple Crown and hadn’t been a big part of it whereas this time I played all the games and to have full ownership of a Triple Crown medal, so to speak, is marvellous.”
Wally will be on that bus this afternoon, relishing the atmosphere, and building himself up for another big European confrontation.
You sense he can hardly wait.
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