Munster game for Costello as curtain comes down on career
When Leinster bowed out so meekly to Leicester in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup he could have been forgiven for thinking that the rest of his final season would be spent with a Leinster team on autopilot, feet up on the dashboard. Instead, he faces one last crack at Munster in tomorrow's Celtic Cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road. Win or lose, it's quite a way to bring the curtain down on a 10-year provincial career.
"I am glad it's Munster, yeah. Apart from being the old enemy, there are a bunch of friends of mine on that team, guys I've played for Ireland with. You could play out the season by playing against a couple of Welsh or anonymous teams so I'm glad it's Munster now."
Costello won't be the only player tomorrow playing at full pelt. Nine British and Irish Lions will be putting themselves in the shop window and big Victor is determined to give those in blue the best possible platform on which to shine.
"I certainly and I know the rest of the lads in the pack feel the same don't want to let those guys down. When you see what they're looking to do, how they're planning on peaking, I would like them to have a strong pack ahead of them."
Even without all the extras, Leinster-Munster is a package that stands tall. Leinster have lived in their neighbours' shadow for much of the past decade, though one of Costello's best days came with the win against Declan Kidney's team in the Celtic League final four years ago.
"When we beat them that time in the Celtic League we just said 'feck it, we're down a man, we're down a couple of points.' I wouldn't say the pressure was off, but we did begin to play more of our own rugby rather than cup rugby and look what happened."
Munster scrum-half Peter Stringer will be hoping history won't repeat itself. It'll be strange enough playing against his usual teammates: for the last eight months, through the autumn series and the Six Nations championship, many of tomorrow's participants lived together, ate together and roomed together. Not surprisingly, enduring friendships have been forged.
Stringer, for instance, would see Malcolm O'Kelly, Guy Easterby and the man mentioned above, Victor Costello, as three particularly close playing colleagues. Yet all three will be out to get him tomorrow.
"It's all part of life and it happens in every country. I suppose it's slightly different in Ireland now, because
Leinster and Munster make up the whole Irish team.
"There's something special about these games; you know it's going to be a bruising physical contest, you know how individual opponents and the team in general plays. It's a question of stopping them in their tracks."
Earlier this week, Stringer socialised with the Leinster players at an awards dinner in Dublin: "There was a fair bit of banter going on, a bit of fun. Come Sunday it will all change, when you get on the pitch it becomes territorial. It's that thing that you're brought up with, an instinct to defend the good name of the team and your territory."
Stopping Leinster's Lions will be "a big ask," says Stringer. "No matter how much you try to analyse guys like Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy, it's hard to stop them. They're always capable of doing the unexpected and that's what makes them such good players.
"We did manage to halt them when we played in Cork in January, but it took a lot of effort and total concentration. We have to go into this game with a similar mindset and the same level of effort for the full 80 minutes. We won't be able to relax for a second."
LEINSTER: G. Dempsey, S. Horgan, B. O'Driscoll, G. D'Arcy, D. Hickie, D. Holwell, G. Easterby, R. Corrigan (captain), S. Byrne, E. Byrne, L. Cullen, M. O'Kelly, D. Dillon, V. Costello, K. Gleeson.
MUNSTER: S. Payne, J. Kelly, M. Mullins, R. Henderson, A. Horgan, P. Burke, P. Stringer, M. Horan, F. Sheahan, J. Hayes, D. O'Callaghan, P. O'Connell, A. Quinlan, A. Foley (captain), D. Wallace.
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