Reddan the realist ready to roll

EOIN REDDAN, called up to the Irish bench for the Murrayfield clash on Saturday, is a realist.

He knows his only chance of any involvement against Scotland is an injury to Peter Stringer or a late emptying of the bench by Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan.

However, the 26 year-old former Old Crescent, Connacht and Munster scrum-half, now starring with London Wasps, is delighted to be in the mix, though he’s hoping for more than when he received his only Irish cap so far, the five-minute cameo appearance on the wing in the mayhem in Paris twelve months ago.

Reddan was born into a talented and enthusiastic Limerick rugby family (his father, Don, represented Munster and Connacht) while Eoin has found himself in the shadow — if such a term is appropriate — of Peter Stringer throughout his career.

He feared he would be forgotten after switching from Munster to Wasps early last year but that was not the case. Eddie O’Sullivan and Niall O’Donovan kept in touch and watched a recent Wasps Premiership game and Mervyn Murphy also sent a few videos over. All of that was very reassuring and this week the coach paid him a well-deserved tribute: “Eoin is a smart footballer who reads the game well,” O’Sullivan enthused.

“He’s become a key player at Wasps in terms of managing the pack. He keeps them going forward because of the way he distributes, passes, runs, kicks. He keeps changing the landscape for the defence and that’s what I mean by a smart footballer. The move to Wasps has done him a lot of good and he’s playing in an environment where he has to make those decisions all the time. That’s what he brings to us now. I’d like to think he’ll have the same urgency around our pack and keep them buzzing.”

Reddan himself would love to see things in that light but first, of course, he has to get the chance. However, it’s easier said than done to unseat the man in possession and that’s one of the chief reasons why he went off to Wasps in January 2006.

“I didn’t play much under the coaches at Munster at the time,” he explained. “I think I have thirty caps with Munster and only two came in the second season I was there. Then I went to Wasps and hit the ground running. I went because I figured there was no chance of playing in the bigger games at Munster. I spoke to Shaun Edwards at Wasps and he’s a very straight-talking guy and he told me that I would get a chance.

“The only reason anyone would leave Munster is when you can’t get on. It’s a great club and I loved it there and you wouldn’t leave unless you had a real reason to go. I wouldn’t have gone to a club if it was doing disastrously in the Premiership. I wanted to go to a club where at least if I played well, I had every chance of progressing internationally.”

Former Rugby League legend Edwards took Reddan under his wing and became “undoubtedly the biggest influence on my career. He’s as critical of me as anyone but I always have the feeling he’s trying to help me.”

England World Cup hero Matt Dawson was the Wasps number one scrum-half when Reddan arrived and was another, somewhat surprising, source of encouragement to an Irishman still finding his feet.

“I think you learn a lot about yourself when people tell you you’re not good enough and write you off and that’s when you find out what you’re made of. I still felt if I worked hard enough and was given a chance that I could get on that team. Matt was so helpful and different to what I had expected.

“I remember the first time I was selected ahead of him was against Llanelli. We had lost away to them the previous week and I was the only change for the return game the following week. At half time, he came over and told me I was playing really, really well and pointed out that a certain number in their side was constantly leaving the ruck and that there might be something on. Lo and behold, five minutes later your man was gone and I was gone through.”

Dawson and Reddan battled it out to the end of the season for the Wasps number nine jersey before Matt took off for A Question of Sport and so on, leaving the door wide open for Eoin. He’s now firmly established as first choice for the Heineken Cup quarter-finalists is also looking to the future and qualifying as a tax consultant.

“I find it interesting and it’s good to have something else outside of rugby,” he reasons. “It’s something for the future and something to do. But the goal for now is to win as many Irish caps as I can. You need to know what you’re good at, know what you can do, continued to do it over and over again, get the simple things right, so that when the chance comes, that’s what I’ll do.

“I wouldn’t be focusing on things I can’t control. If you focus on getting on a team and play absolutely amazing and then someone somewhere decides you don’t really suit our game – that is outside of your control. It’s not your problem. You have to look at your own game and ask if that was a good game and be honest and say yes or no. For now, I feel I’m playing really well and if I continue to so, I know my chance will come. I really do.”