Quinlan eager to answer coach’s call

The phone-call, the dreaded phone-call.

As the Munster players go through their final paces in preparation for Saturday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final clash against Gloucester in Kingsholm, the players’ biggest fear is this – who is going to get that call from coach Declan Kidney, the call to explain why they haven’t made the first 15, why they haven’t even made it onto the 22?

Already, among those who didn’t even make the first cut, the 27 announced on Tuesday, there is major disappointment; there’s more to come.

Three from five in the front-row, two from four in the second-row, three from five in the backrow, any one of whom would do justice to the shirt this weekend – in the pack alone that’s an embarrassment of riches for Kidney.

Of all the selection problems he faces, however, and scrum-half and full-back can be added to the above mix, none is more tight-run than the back-row, a fact accepted by Kidney: “The five, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Anthony Foley, Niall Ronan, Alan Quinlan, they’ve all played their part in our season to date and I’m sure they’ll continue to do so. I just have to come up now with the best recipe for what we’re going into.”

Alan Quinlan is the last mentioned above but he surely won’t be last in his coach’s thoughts this week. Like his long-serving backrow colleague Anthony Foley, who has announced his retirement from the game at the end of the season, Quinlan has been on the Munster scene a long time, and yet, like Foley, Quinlan has been absolutely superb this season, collected several man-of-the-match awards.

How many? “I’m not sure exactly,” he says, to be interrupted by Paul O’Connell – “He knows exactly how many he has!” That’s part of the Munster recipe for success, of course, the banter, but it’s a fact nevertheless that the Tipp-man has been in superb form of late, should be an automatic for the Gloucester game.

And then you come to Denis Leamy, another Tipp-man. It’s arguable that even with the disappointment of the recent Six-Nations, the outstanding number six of the championship was Leamy. He had been operating at eight, his favourite position, but Jamie Heaslip of Leinster has now made that slot his own and Denis was restored to the place where he first made his name in the big-time, blindside flanker. So, what’s a coach to do?

Last game out, against Connacht in the Magner’s League less than a week ago, Kidney had Leamy at inside-centre – in indicator of the coach’s thinking, that he wanted to have both involved?

Not really, he says. “You have to understand where it came from. The previous week against Ulster we had Lifeimi Mafi and Kieran Lewis as our only two fit centres, in terms of European matches. That was a bit nerve-wracking; we weren’t sure if Rua Tipoki would come through, Barry Murphy’s hamstring hasn’t held up, we weren’t too sure if Keith Earls’ hamstring would hold up.

What you didn’t want was to be left in a situation where you have to do something without anyone having put any thought into it. It was probably a Plan C or a Plan D but it seemed to have attracted a small bit of attention. It was really a backupplan. Thankfully Rua Tipoki has held up, Keith has held up, so there’s a choice of four centres. But it would probably have been Sod’s Law — if we hadn’t had a backup plan those two might not have come through and you’re then left wondering what to do.”

Denis could move back to eight, of course, but where does that leave Foley, whose recent form has also been superb?

The other choice facing Declan Kidney in the backrow would seem to be a straight battle for the seven spot between David Wallace and newcomer Niall Ronan, unless of course the coach introduces something from left field and puts Wallace at eight.

Choices, choices, none of them easy – what’s a coach to do? Who to call? “I’ve never found any of them easy,” he says, “Even when it’s been only one phone-call, but you have to have this choice, and the more choices you have the more phone-calls you have to make. If we didn’t have this strength we wouldn’t be where we are now, I have absolutely no doubt about that.”

But what of Alan? What’s it like being one of those waiting?

“Unfortunately I’ve become used to being in that situation; being on the fringe of the team, being a utility player if you like with Ireland and Munster over the years, this has happened to me a few times.

” Definitely the hunger is there, personally I want to play on this team, but so does every player. If I get a chance I’ll give it my all and I’m hoping I get that chance.

” It’s up to the coach, a difficult choice; leaving the backrow out of it, no matter what happens there are going to be good players not even in the 22. Everyone has a fantastic attitude on this squad, people realise that only 22 can make the cut, there are guys who won’t make it.

“There’s a great competitive edge there and I think it’s got stronger and stronger in the last number of years with the quality of the players in the squad, they’re all high achievers.