Flannery: time to get hunger back

ON the first week of September, Jerry Flannery was one of 30 excited and expectant Irish rugby players who set out for France and the World Cup firmly believing that the team was capable of going a very long way in the competition, if not actually returning with the trophy.

The debacle that ensued continues to bewilder the 29-year-old Limerickman. As we chatted during the week, Flannery frequently referred to the need to draw a line under what happened at the World Cup and move on to the next challenge, the Heineken European Cup, which begins today. Try as he might, though, his mind kept returning to events in France as he sought reasons and explanations for Ireland’s dismal performances.

FLANNERY ON THE WORLD CUP

The Munster hooker says he is looking forward to the report of the independent body which has been put in place by the IRFU but is adamant that it won’t include any reference to disharmony or bad blood within the squad — because there wasn’t any.

“It wasn’t a happy time,” he insists. “It was hugely disappointing and a massive underachievement for all of us. It would be so much easier if you could put an exact reason on it, like if you could blame it on the training. But everyone trained so hard, we were so disciplined and so keen; we were all so ambitious and confident going into it and to blow up as we did is very hard to take.

“You think you’re doing everything right, doing everything that has worked for you in the past, and you’re doing it even better than you have done it before, and it still doesn’t happen for you.”

Much was made of the negative media speculation filtering into the camp. Did this have an effect on morale?

“To be honest, I don’t think the rumours and the stuff in the newspapers and on radio and tv upset us as a group. Back home, it was a lot worse than it was for us. During the World Cup, I got a lot of text messages from some of my mates and I thought — what’s going on at all. When I got back, I had more of an idea.

“I can see how the rumours and that stuff started. If we’re on the inside and not getting it right, people on the outside must be thinking there has to be something seriously wrong in that camp. People want something to blame it on… it’s because the players are fighting all the time in training — or fellas are disgruntled because they’re not getting games — or there must be problems in people’s personal lives.

“And it’s just not true. That’s the be all and end of it. If it was, I’d be sitting here with you, saying it didn’t work for us because of this or that. But that wouldn’t be the truth.

“Everyone under-performed. I’d love to have an explanation for that. I can’t wait for these independent reports to be done to tell us what went wrong. To be honest, fellas are still dumbstruck.”

Flannery is admirably conscious of the repercussions of their display, how it hit Irish supporters. But, he claims, he never experienced any negative feedback, something he would have preferred.

“When I got home, it was just a case of playful slagging. When I pulled up at the house, a couple of my friends had balloons hanging everywhere with sad faces drawn on them. I just had to laugh it off and get on with things. But to be honest there wasn’t anything very nasty.

“The night we lost to Argentina, I went into town to meet a few friends and family who had come over. I know it cost an awful lot of money, Paris is a very expensive town, and I thought, they’re after spending a fortune to come and watch us play rubbish.

“But they were very understanding. They seemed to know that no matter how disappointed the supporters were, I’m twice as down. I lived this every single day. The passion in my life is rugby and when it doesn’t go right for you, it’s so gutting. It should be the pinnacle of your career but you have people coming up to you and saying ‘I really feel for you, it didn’t go for you’, and it makes you feel even worse because people are being so nice to you.

“All you can say is, thanks very much and you’d nearly prefer if some guy came over to you and told you were a useless ******, what the **** were you doing out on that field?”

And what about all that expectation before the competition?

“There was a lot of hype going into the World Cup. But I don’t think we were being hyped up so that we could be knocked if we failed. I see it with Munster all the time. There’s this massive belief in the team and the fans don’t say we’re useless if we lose. Everyone knows that every guy who goes out there tries their best and gives it everything they have.

“That’s because everyone is so proud to play for Munster. I was transferring that to the Irish team and people were identifying with the team. There was less of the upper-class Dublin school mentality to it and they were getting behind the team.”

FLANNERY ON TODAY’S HEINEKEN CUP GAME

Getting back into the Munster flow of things requires moving on says the Limerickman.

“You have to draw a line under the World Cup at some stage. You try to get it out of your system, not that it will ever be fully resolved, so that you come to Munster fresh and you’re not carrying any World Cup baggage. It would be unfair if you turned up for training and you were moping around the place. As players, we have to face up to it, it’s done, it’s over.”

There will be no “hangover” from the World Cup, he insists.

“You can’t afford to have that. It cuts both ways. If we had won the World Cup, we would still have to come back and perform for Munster. It’s certainly not a case of thinking, jeez, I have to go through all this again. Instead, as soon as I got back, I went for a run and was thinking of getting back out there with Munster.”

Is the trip to Wasps coming too soon?

“I wouldn’t say it’s daunting. But I’m excited about the challenge. They have a lot of talent but it’s the same position we were in 12 months ago, Leicester then, Wasps now. They have a lot of talent but so have we. The standard is so high that you could pick nearly any team we’d be playing and say the exact same thing.”

His opposite number will be a familiar face.

“I’m looking forward to another hop at Raphael Ibanez. I’m good friends with Eoin Reddan and he’s been telling me how Ibanez has reinvented his career since he moved to Wasps. He’s a good hooker, a good player, we’re roughly the same build and try to have a good work rate around the field. I’ll be trying to dominate him and I’m sure he’ll be trying to do the same to me.”

And the contest at scrum-half will be one to watch?

“People will be watching the head-to-head between Strings and Reds. They’ll both be looking to play their own game, they’re different types of players, both bring different things to the table, so different but so good in what they do.

“Paul O’Connell will be a big loss for us but Mick O’Driscoll has been in great form and maybe our best forward so far.

“It’s also great to have Rog coming back. He’s a real leader on the field and, speaking as a forward, it will be great to have him turning the opposition and running the game. It gives you great confidence and to see him playing so well last weekend was brilliant for us.

“We’ll be going out there to win the game. We wouldn’t settle for a bonus point although I know how important it could be. Settling for a bonus point is a dangerous mindset. You have to be 100% committed to winning, anything else is leaving too great a margin for error.”

FLANNERY ON RONAN O’GARA AT THE WORLD CUP

The Munster hooker insists that the responsibility for the World Cup debacle in no way rests with Ronan O’Gara or indeed any of the other higher-profile members of the squad.

“If you look at it, none of the 30 who went out there performed as they wanted to. It wasn’t a case of coming back from the World Cup and saying, jeez, those five lads in key positions didn’t perform. I think it was across the board.

“When Ireland play well, Ronan O’Gara is right up there, a nine out of 10 player. He gets a lot of the plaudits then. I don’t think Ireland play well only because of Rog. It’s not a one-man team. He is important as the number 10 is always important because he’s the playmaker. But it makes it easy to blame the 10 when Ireland don’t play well.”

Flannery is open about the areas that didn’t go to plan.

“Everything in France was slightly off, except maybe for the scrum which went relatively well. Apart from that, our attack wasn’t as good, our line-out wasn’t as sharp, our continuity was off. And it’s then that people look at the 10 and blame him.

“It would make it a lot easier for me personally to accept that. I look at it from my own point of view and feel I didn’t go as well as I could have gone. I ticked all the boxes, trained as hard as I could, I was really disciplined, so enthusiastic, so motivated, so looking forward to it and consequently battling to stay positive when things didn’t go well.”

He reiterates the evenly held responsibility in the camp.

“It would be great if I could say, jeez, that was it — Ronan. But that’s ridiculous. That’s a cop-out. That’s not the way it is. Ireland didn’t play well across the board — there’s no party line.

“I wish to God I could point to something. But I have to push it to the back of my mind because I can’t be sitting here preparing for a Heineken Cup thinking to myself ‘ah, the World Cup, where did it go wrong?’ That’s bringing it with me. I have to be professional about it. This is the Heineken Cup. This is a massive game for us. We have to go back in there and be hungry.”