O’Connell unfazed by the weight of expectation

LONG after the final whistle, the quaint and friendly town of Gloucester reverberated to the sound of ‘Munster, Munster’, the huge travelling contingent absorbing another epic result in Europe.

Their team had come, they had seen and they had conquered Kingsholm. The supporters were buoyed and uplifted following another clinically efficient performance from a side that, since the time Ronan O’Gara landed a last minute conversion to beat Saracens in Vicarage Road in December 1999, has given them a treasure throve of European memories. The good times roll on for Munster, and who knows – it could all end with ultimate glory in Cardiff on May 24. Central to taking the last few steps towards Cardiff will be Paul O’Connell, who on the evidence of this display has rediscovered the form that inspired Munster to ultimate glory in 2006. His Superman aura may have lost its sheen in the period between beating Leinster in April 2006 and up to kick-off on Saturday, but, when it mattered most in an absorbing contest, the captain rolled back the years to produce a mesmeric individual performance.

The pack leader is back leading the pack again, but afterwards, as he absorbed the feel-good factor that comes with these special Munster victories, one had to wonder if he felt days like this push expectations of the supporters even higher?

“I think the expectations of supporters is something that makes us perform,” O’Connell said. “It makes it a tough, pressure-filled week before these games but it’s something that does make us perform. It’s good for us.”

On an evening when every member of the Munster team played a part, there was strong focus on new-boy, Denis Hurley, and Tomas O’Leary. O’Connell felt they acquitted themselves the way he knows they can.

“I thought they played great, fair play to them, they are very confident young fellas but very modest as well. And that’s very important when you come into a team.

“The boys just did everything they had to do competently and the more the game went on, the better they looked. You could see Tomas’s breaks, his big kicks into the corner, you see Denis’s little chip and his steadiness under the high ball: you just come in and do what you’re good at first and foremost, and whatever happens after that is a bonus.”

For someone who constantly seeks perfection, perhaps what drew greatest satisfaction for O’Connell was Munster’s defence — impregnable and irresistible from first minute to last.

“Defence at this level is massive,” he said. “You can talk about everything you want to do in the dressing-room or in the weeks beforehand about what you’re going to do, but they are all very good teams at this level and so you’re not going to have the ball for 80 minutes.

“These guys are good at attacking, they are going to have the ball as well, and defence plays a massive part in it. Teams have purple patches and you have got to be calm and master those purple patches, and we did that early on.

“Apart from the few penalties we gave away, I think we defended quite well and were calm.”