Focused O’Callaghan issues rallying call to Red Army

DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN is issuing a call to arms to Munster supporters this week as his side bids for a win that would see them head for another Cardiff final, scene of their great triumph of 2006.

“I don’t think we’ve made this call to the supporters for a long time,” muses O’Callaghan. “Probably not since Gaillimh (former captain Mick Galwey) was involved. But everyone who’s going to Coventry this weekend, we need them so much to really get behind the team, to lift it from the off.

“I’ll be honest with you, this team feeds off the supporters. You just know the great days — you’re warming up, the crowd is hopping, you just know you’re going to play well because you can’t leave them down.

O’Callaghan describes the quarter-final win at Gloucester as the “noisiest match” he’s ever played in.

“All the talk beforehand was of the Shed, it was almost as if the supporters were on a mission themselves to cancel out the home support. That was almost a battle in itself and it led to Gloucester really losing the edge that home advantage can bring.”

There have been so many of those days, like that thunderous afternoon in Welford Road, April 2003, when Munster went to the Tigers’ den and beat Leicester, the day when the second-row partnership of Paul O’Connell and O’Callaghan really announced themselves, dominating Martin Johnson and Ben Kay.

“That game was huge for me, playing against one of my greatest heroes (Johnson), a guy I had looked up to since I was 16 or 17.”

There were enough familiar faces in the crowd that day to prove he had stepped up to the plate.

“There’s this thing about the Munster supporters — you look into the crowd and you know the people, you know this guy is from Shannon, this guy is a Con man, this woman is with Garryowen.

“That’s the biggest incentive we have, you know you have to perform for these people.”

One game that sticks is Toulouse away. “It’s a bit different in France because unlike the English clubs, their own supporters can turn against them when things aren’t going right. For that Toulouse game the Munster crowd was just getting louder and louder, their supporters were going quieter and quieter.

“And then, to go around after the match and meet fellas in Santa outfits, the sun splitting the stones, big red heads under the big red hats — it was just fantastic and it’s something we never take for granted.

“We appreciate how much effort goes into this, how much sacrifice is involved, people have to dig deep into their pockets. I know people are saying too that they’ve had a great time on all these trips, great experiences, but we know how hard they have to work for that, and I know that myself from my own family.”

O’Callaghan has even met Munster fans from overseas.

“I met a few Pontypridd fellas in Munster jerseys one time, we got chatting to them and they told us that when Wales went for the regions they didn’t want to support Bridgend, with whom they had been amalgamated for no reason they could see, so they went for Munster instead. I think they saw something they could identify with in us, the honesty, the tradition, stuff like that. It’s amazing how it crosses boundaries but it does, people identify with Munster from all over the place.”

Tipperary man Denis Leamy has a cut off O’Callaghan as he is sitting down to interview, anticipating the impending Munster championship, something else that marks the squad.

“It’s that identity thing that makes us tick,” says the Corkman. “Denis will always say that Munster guys are very parochial, it matters to us how our county team is doing, it matters to us how our club teams are doing in the AIL.

“Fellas were congratulating the Shannon lads, Mossie (Lawlor) and those, on a great win in the AIL Cup a few weeks ago, but a few others were looking over who mightn’t have felt the same way, that bit of club rivalry is always there. It’s a contradiction I know.”

What do the three Kiwis make of all this parochialism?

“I think we’ve been lucky with the type of players we’ve signed, they all just buy in to what we’re about.

“You look at the likes of Shaun Payne, he’s practically Irish now, then you have Mafs (Lifeimi Mafi) and Rua (Tipoki), it feels like they’ve always been here.

“They’re very happy in Cork but they haven’t been to a hurling match yet – we’ll have to get Tomás (O’Leary) to bring them to the Cork/Tipperary match! He’d be the man to take them, and that would be the game to see.”

As for Saracens? “Having been coached by Alan (Gaffney) ourselves we know exactly how meticulous he is, how much preparation he will put into analysing us both as individuals and as a team. Any weakness in our team, individually or collectively, will be tested.

“For us, it’s just about this 80 minutes now, no one is thinking any further.”