Flannery: I’m still learning the game

WHEN Frankie Sheahan was fully ensconced as Munster’s number one hooker, Jerry Flannery wondered if he should forget about a career as a professional rugby player and go help his dad, also Jerry, to run the family pub in Limerick city.

However, Sheahan was unfortunate enough to pick up a long-term injury and Flannery suddenly found himself a key member of a side on its way to Heineken Cup glory in Cardiff.

He was so impressive in that campaign, he would proceed to pull on the red jersey 70 times — 22 in the Heineken Cup — while also winning 23 Irish caps.

He is now a near certainty for a place in next summer’s & Lions tour of South Africa. He smiles ruefully at the suggestion and insists that not alone is there no guarantee of a Lions place but that he must also remain number one with province and country.

“I can’t set things like a Lions tour as a goal because I can’t directly affect whether I get selected or not,” he reasons. “I could play well and still not get picked. First and foremost, it’s getting on the Munster team and winning games and performing well. If you do that, you’re in the shake-up for everything else. There isn’t a player in Munster who doesn’t want to go with the Lions but it’s difficult to pick that as a goal because it’s so far away.”

At 29, he fully appreciates there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“You can always get better at things you’re good at,” he states. “But I think stuff like improving your general skills, contributing more around the park, becoming a more rounded footballer and recognising situations — the more you learn these things, the more you can assess the situation and see what the right play is. Picking the brains of coaches, watching videos, chatting to lads who have been there before, all that stuff makes it easier when you go on the field. It all breeds confidence.”

IT is fascinating to witness the ease with which the Munster players have moved on from the Declan Kidney era to that fronted by Tony McGahan.

“Change is good but of course we were coming from being European champions, so things were going well here,” Flannery points out. “The important thing for us as a squad is that we felt we were going in the right direction. There’s good continuation there now with Tony. He knows the squad from the inside and is now trying to push it on again. He has set us targets, given us more ownership of the squad. After 2006, we weren’t competitive enough and fell off the wagon a little bit. We have identified that early this time.”

And Laurie Fisher, the new Aussie forwards coach with the amazing hairstyle?

“Technically very, very good,” Flannery enthused. “I’ve learned an awful lot from him. The tiniest and tiniest of details, foot placement at scrums and line-outs, lifting in the line-outs. Over the years, I’ve learned that little things make a massive difference. If you’re a little bit cuter, a little bit smarter, it makes a huge difference. The Munster squad is a good place to be.”

Jerry ponders a situation in which two Aussies are now running the show: “I think to myself, how do they do it? It’s probably because they have more professional sport there. Maybe they’re used to breaking things down and analysing them a bit more.”

He may play down the chances of a Lions tour but Flannery carries so much self belief within his sturdy 5ft 11ins, 16½ stone frame. “I suppose it accelerated very quickly from the time Frankie Sheahan got injured to getting in the team, winning the cup in 2006 and getting into the Irish team. You can make two calls, you can say that after training so hard for so long that I knew something would come, that I’d get a break, but it’s still difficult to visualise. I wondered when this break was ever going to come. But it came.

“The thing now is to keep going. I don’t want to sit back for two or three years to the end of my career and look back, and say, yeah, yeah, that was great. It’s always been a fear of mine that we’d never top last year. Anyone playing rugby here that’s worth a damn is the same, they want people to know that I’m working hard, I’m trying to be successful and I want people to respect that.

“And that’s what we’re about in Munster, it’s trying to keep winning and to appreciate that there’s a big responsibility when you play for Munster.”