Leamy to live his Croker dream
However, Denis Leamy might well have forfeited that cherished ambition forever when he chose rugby ahead of hurling.
However, a dramatic change has since taken place.
All going well, with an infection in his left side that knocked the stuffing out of him early in the week, the dynamic Tipperary man will be in the heart of the battle on Sunday afternoon. One glance at Leamy’s face this week left no doubt that this man played a tough, uncompromising sport for a living. He was covered in scratches, bruises and cuts.
However, as far as one of the hard men of the Irish game is concerned, they are scars of battle and not a problem.
The abscess on his body, however, is a different matter.
He has been on antibiotics since Sunday but insists “unless something goes drastically wrong, I don’t see anything to prevent me from playing”. You sense he wouldn’t let anything stand in his way.
“Croke Park is a massive place in Irish sport and being from a GAA background in Tipperary, it’s a place I’ve been to on many occasions,” he enthused. “To get a chance to run out there and represent your country will make it a day to remember. I was first there in 1987 when I saw Tipperary play Galway in an All-Ireland semi-final.
“I was there for the All-Ireland finals in 1989, ‘91 and 2000 and we won all those.
“I was there in ‘97 when we lost to Clare.
“It’s a special place for GAA fans and now it’s a chance for rugby fans and the like to enjoy it as well.”
“I hurled from nine to 18 when I left school and joined the academy and that ended my hurling career. From 15 on, rugby became very serious for me and I only hurled for three or four months of the year.
“My dad, my uncle, my grandfather, all played rugby with Cashel so I suppose the natural thing was to go in there and try my hand at it and I enjoyed it from the first minute, but I always harboured an ambition to play at Croke Park.
“The pitch at the moment is ideal for rugby. Every other pitch is a quagmire at this time of year.
“I reckon if you played there in June, July, it would be rock hard and a lot of guys could get injured. But at the moment, it’s perfect for a hard, fast game”.
He dismisses the suggestion the pitch will favour the traditional French way of playing, stressing that modern Irish teams like to spread it wide as well.
And on Sunday, he meets an old friend, the redoubtable Sebastian Chabal with whom he came in contact in last season’s Heineken Cup epic at Thomond Park.
“He’s a quality player, a man mountain and an excellent ball carrier,” he acknowledged.
“If you go in soft he’ll run over you. It’s important we target him early.
“France have an excellent back row, with huge experience. Betsen will do the dirty work and Harinordoquy has all the skills.
“At the same time, we can’t concentrate too much on them. We have a very good back-row ourselves. There’s a lot of pressure on us and it’s something we’re getting used to.
“We set our own standards and it will be very disappointing if we don’t go out and play very well. If we do the basics and play to the best of our ability, I suppose the result will then look after itself.
“France lend something extra to the tournament. There’s something special about the brand of rugby they play, the flair they bring.
“The competition is much stronger for their involvement.”
Back to Chabal … what EXACTLY was Leamy’s role the night in Thomond Park when the Munster pack, led by Paul O’Connell, drove him back 20 yards and rubbed his nose in the dirt?
“Peter Stringer and myself followed up and there was a little bit of footwork shall we say,” he grinned. “I tried to drag Peter out of in case he got killed. We were just giving him a good Thomond Park welcome.”
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