Reddan ready to turn over a new leaf

TODAY Eoin Reddan will make his first Six Nations start.

Though still five caps away from reaching double figures, the Limerick man is a relative novice of the international game but is clearly comfortable in his own skin as Ireland’s first choice scrum half.

You couldn’t say he’s a product of Eddie O’Sullivan’s conservative selection instincts when, on Tuesday, the head coach plumped almost en-bloc — save for injuries and a suspension — for the so-called “tried and trusted”. Being picked ahead of the 79-times capped Peter Stringer must have been a tight call for O’Sullivan.

But you could see why O’Sullivan favours Reddan. Off the field, the Wasps scrum half strikes one as a driven, single-minded individual — a character trait of the world’s best scrum halves — and it’s an attitude reflected in his performances, particularly for his club.

And he brings a different array of tricks to the position, especially a penchant for the half breaks, which, as a ‘Waspy’, is his staple indulgence.

“I’m picked because of what I do and I need to keep doing that,” he explains. “That’s the key. You can’t be like anyone else. You need to do what you do. If the head coach deems my skills set is what he needs, that’s what I’ll give because that’s what he wants from me. He doesn’t want me to play like someone else. He’ll tell me if he needs anything in particular. I just do what I normally do.”

He eschews the need to sell himself, though he describes one function of a scrum half nicely: It’s the need “to play with your head on a swivel”.

“I wouldn’t like to sell myself,” Reddan contends — I think that’s up to other people to tell me. I know what I like to work on. I think every situation throws up different things. You need to play with your head on a swivel and think on your feet. They’re two things I like to do and hopefully it will all go well at the weekend.”

He didn’t take much enjoyment from watching his Wasps pack fragment in Thomond Park a fortnight ago. But for close to a fortnight he has been in camp with seven of the Munster pack responsible for the Londoners’ European exit, and can look back more positively on a rainy evening in Limerick.

“Two weeks on, and the way the Munster pack performed is very positive for me,” he says. “If they had disintegrated, it might have been fine for five minutes. Instead I realised that I would be playing with them in two weeks’ time. It’s great to see the lads playing so well. A lot of them are good friends of mine.

“Obviously, I like seeing friends of mine playing well as well so there’s that as well. It’s not just that game.”

From afar however and, before his Wasps side floundered in Thomond, he kept tabs on the Munster players’ road to redemption following an ego-bruising Rugby World Cup. Reddan started in Ireland’s final two pool games against France and Argentina, ousting Stringer, and returned untarnished by the experience. Still he can’t wait to start working behind an Ireland/Munster pack.

“I think a lot of them have been putting in performances quietly as the season has gone on. You do one good thing in a game and everyone says you are brilliant. When things haven’t gone well, such as after the World Cup, it takes a lot to convince people that you’re a good player again. I think they have been playing well all along, but it’s that consistency that eventually brings results and then convinces people everything has been put to bed.”

But while the Munster story has arguably saved the plight of rugby in this country for this season, he feels Ireland too need to play well to finally bring closure to the RWC debacle.

“We had two weeks to get ready for a big game. The lads are playing good rugby and there’s a genuine feeling of excitement about. When you win games, everyone, including everyone (journalists) here, thinks everything is rosy in the squad and when you lose games everyone thinks there’s trouble.

“Hopefully what happens now will answer those questions. We’ll go out and produce a big performance and put a lot of things to bed. Nothing will ever be put to bed until we play well.”

An independent Appeal Committee will be convened in Dublin on February 6 to hear the appeal lodged by Alexandre Audebert, the ASM Clermont Auvergne flanker (No 7), against the decision of an independent Disciplinary Committee.

The independent Appeal Committee will be chaired by HHJ Jeff Blackett (England) and also comprise Professor Lorne Crerar (Scotland) and Russell Howell (Wales).

The original independent Disciplinary Committee (January 24) found Audebert guilty of stamping on Munster player Ronan O’Gara during the Round 5 Heineken Cup Pool 5 match against Munster at Parc des Sports Marcel-Michelin on Sunday, January 13, 2008.

The committee determined the offence was of the top end in the level of seriousness and having taken into account any mitigating and aggravating factors the committee suspended the player for a period of eight weeks up to and including March 19.