Heroic Hayes leaves Sheridan reeling

IT was the day the Munster pack were to be torn apart in the scrums, when the scrummaging shortcomings of John Hayes would be mercilessly exposed.

Andrew Sheridan’s countless admirers were rubbing their hands in glee, anticipating vindication for their criticism of Hayes’ selection on the Lions Tour.

Imagine their dismay as Sheridan and his colleagues failed dismally to rise to the occasion, and Hayes, in his own quiet, effective manner, emerged as by far the more influential of the two.

Munster coach Declan Kidney isn’t given to singling out players but when he paid a stirring tribute to Hayes, he was clearly sending a message to the assembled English media. Anthony Foley and Paul O’Connell, were only too happy to agree, for the big man from Cappamore doesn’t have two greater admirers of his magnificent work rate, honesty, power in the loose and tight alike and, not insignificantly, his ability to lift the jumpers in the line-outs.

O’Connell left no doubt as to his heroes of the day: “Every time I looked at Chabal, it seemed that Dunners (Donncha O’Callaghan) was tackling him and the same with Hayes,” he said. “It was just incredible. Whenever you’re beside a ruck, Hayes pulls you out, he wants to be in there himself making the tackles and they’re the bits himself and Dunners don’t get the credit for.

“In the scrums, they might have had us once or twice in the first half, but I felt we had them a lot as well, especially in the second half. You know straightaway after a hit whether a guy is going to struggle and I’d say nine times out of ten, Hayes was on top and could have gone on further. Sometimes, I suppose because we’re Irish, we don’t kick on our advantage. We need to do that, when we get a good hit in the scrum, we need to keep following through.

“Sale were away from home and their set piece was going to be massive for them and I think it’s going to bring them a long way yet this year. Chabal, Sheridan, Bruno, these are big men but the commitment from our pack is what is needed when you play against these kinds of teams.

“When you have people like that running at you, the big thing is that you have dominant tackles, dominant hits. Leamy, Dunners, Axel (Anthony Foley), Hayes were doing that. If they get over the gain line, it’s then they can spread it wide. If they’re not getting over the gain line and need to get guys into the rucks, they can’t do that and luckily today the guys did really well.

“This was a very special day. We were favourites coming in and that was something I feared. The work rate in the squad, the work ethic at training is incredible. There are guys at home who aren’t in the 22 and they train so hard. It’s something I’ve noticed this year more than ever and from that point of view this result isn’t a surprise. We never thought we’d get the bonus, it was all about working hard to preserve our home record. There’s a fear of losing in the squad and it is unbelievably motivating. It makes people play out of their skins and it’s something we now need to take with us on our away trips as well.”

As for the Thomond Park influence, he said: “Records are made to be broken and this one will fall as well. More and more teams will see it as a challenge; they want to be the one to beat us here, but for the moment we enjoy taking them on. There’s always an Irish-English thing and it’s great for Limerick, for Cork, for everyone. There will be a massive buzz around here tonight and for the next week.”