Reddan ready to spoil Munster party

IN UNDER three years Eoin Reddan’s ambitions appear fully realised: from bit-part player at Munster to central cog and sometime captain at Wasps, where the English Premiership club hunt a third Heineken Cup title in five seasons, not forgetting current holder of the Ireland scrum-half shirt.

Although he mightn’t agree, the meeting of minds with Peter Stringer today (Sky Sports, 5.30pm) will act as a final trial in Eddie O’Sullivan’s mind before Ireland play Italy on February 2.

“I don’t think playing internationals is about one game,” Reddan disagrees. “You need to be in form all the time. Munster are going well and we’re going well, and Eddie will make his decision later on. I’m just enjoying my rugby, I’m not thinking about it too much.”

Of course he’s not — there’s the game in Thomond today, when he returns to play his native province for the first time since his move across the Irish Sea in 2005. One of his club’s mottos is ‘Once a Wasp, always a Wasp’ and while Reddan may one day return to his native province — “you never rule those things out, someday maybe” — currently the 27-year-old former Old Crescent man has found his niche at the English club.

Reddan also spent two seasons with Connacht, his appetite for hard work clear in a dogged pursuit of a finance and accounting degree which he completed by commuting daily from Galway to UL — while holding down a professional contract.

It’s ironic that three former Stringer understudies are enjoying professional life in England.

“I think there was a bit of log-jam behind Peter,” explains Reddan. “There were some good players there — Frank (Murphy) is with Leicester and Mike (Prendergast) is with Gloucester and I’m at Wasps.

“The problem was that at our time in Munster, there were nine Heineken Cup games in a year (six pool, three knockout). They’re the big games in Ireland, they’re the games you need to be picked for to prove your international ambitions.

“So when there are only nine of those big games a year, it’s hard to impress at another level because those games are few and far between and obviously because Peter was playing very well.

“Since then, I think the Magners League has come on a helluva lot in the last two years and I think there’s a lot more opportunity at home for people to play well in that and gain recognition in that. I think a lot of the Leinster players are playing very well at the moment because of the Magners League — I think they’ll get their just reward in the Ireland squad.”

Wasps is a small club but an appealing destination nonetheless because of its work ethic.

“I think it’s that level of expectation we have of each other here, which is not unlike Munster. A day doesn’t go by when you don’t see guys tearing into each other at training and when everything is done and finished, everyone is practising their defence and practising their passing. To be honest I don’t think there’s any successful club out there that doesn’t do that. All successful clubs have a bite to them and produce big performances on big days.

“I think we’re both very ambitious teams. When Munster say they want to win the Heineken Cup, people know they’re not lying, people don’t even ask ‘do they want to win the Heineken Cup?’ It’s the same in Wasps. Both teams have very high expectations of each other.”

Reddan and Munster parted amicably, and even that time on the Munster bench taught him much about the virtue of patience and biding one’s time.

“Munster management felt it would probably be good for me to go and get some rugby and there were no hard feelings. I still get on well with all the management there and I certainly learnt a lot there.

“I think it is a club with very similar ambitions to Wasps every year. Because of what was expected of me as a player from the coaches at Munster, it was exactly the same when I got here. So I was ready when I got here to start with what I knew would work.

“I learnt a lot from Munster from sitting on the bench. I learnt a lot about being patient, and waiting for your chance.”

But Wasps have brought the best out of him, to the point where he can control a match on his own — which no doubt has helped 20-year-old prodigy Danny Cipriani mature into a classy out-half.

Working under Ian McGeechan, and picking up rugby league hints from a past master of the code in Shaun Edwards, have helped develop Reddan’s game no end. Oh, and there were those tutorials from Matt Dawson (now retired), the former England and Lions scrum half to whom Reddan’s hugely indebted.

“I think Shaun was a top half back in rugby league and I think a lot of things he brought through from league are very good. It’s not just about knowing the league stuff; it’s about being able to apply to it to union. Shaun is very good at that.

“It was incredible having Matt around. He was with the Lions in the summer (2005) and then I was playing with him in September and October. You couldn’t have a guy who knows more about current rugby and the nine position. Obviously you have guys who were brilliant 20 years ago, but rugby is different now. To have someone who is so fresh and playing at such a high level so recently, a lot of things he said will help me now.”

A study of the Wasps success story since the turn of the millennium, a revolution started by Warren Gatland and continued under the McGeechan/Edwards partnership, shows that this side produces the big games in the big occasions, something other teams can’t manage — outside of Munster, of course. Reddan says it is a fear of failure that drives Wasps.

“Fear of failure can drive everyone a long way. When your thought of failure is losing in the Heineken Cup final, then fear of that can push you a long way. I think Munster traditionally are a very big team as well on big days.

“We have had good games in the past but it’s hard. You never know where you are until you’re sitting with a trophy in your hand, do you? That’s the attitude I’ve felt since I got here. It’s a more a sense of relief when you win something than joy.

“When I think of Matt Dawson or Rob Howley, I see the pile of trophies they have. It’s obviously something that when you have this jersey, your job is to win for Wasps, not really just to play for Wasps.

“I think we need to be better than we’ve been at any stage of the season because I am predicting how well Munster will play. I definitely think we have it in us but I do think it will have to be a top class performance.”