O’Gara understudy Warwick won’t stayon bench forever

PAUL WARWICK could hardly be blamed if he was becoming increasingly frustrated at the fact that he is as far away as ever from claiming a first team place with Munster while remaining ineligible to represent Ireland at any level.

But the 27 year-old native of Brisbane, Australia, whose all-round footballing attributes are widely acknowledged and make him a key member of the Munster squad, adopts a totally realistic and practical attitude on both points. First and foremost, he was fully aware that the number ten jersey on both the Munster and Irish teams was very much in the possession of Ronan O’Gara when he made the move from Connacht in the summer of 2007. Furthermore, he realised that representing Australia in sevens tournaments several years ago precluded him from playing for any other country in the future.

Given his subsidiary role with Munster, it might seem a little silly to suggest that Warwick should have any claims on a place in the national set-up. But those who have seen him fill in for O’Gara are satisfied that he is a player of the highest quality and arguably the second best number ten playing the game here at present.

He squirms a little uncomfortably at hearing such plaudits before finally agreeing that “there is a lack of depth in a few positions and out-half is one of them”.

Warwick obviously had no idea what the future held for him, especially in an Irish context, when he played those sevens events back home in 2004. As he puts it: “I didn’t expect to be in the position I’m in now. Everyone wants to play for their country and I wouldn’t take it back. It’s not something that frustrates me now because there are no guarantees that there would be a role for me in the Irish set-up anyway.

“Sure, it would be nice to play at the highest level possible and that would be one of the reasons I came down to Munster from Connacht, to come down here and get a run in the Heineken Cup and that’s where it’s at, I guess. Obviously, I’m not going to be content sitting on the bench forever. I’d like to test myself against the best teams in Europe. It’s not easy to say this because Munster has been great but I’m sure the time will come when I look to move on and ask new questions of myself and see where I can get to.”

Warwick will warm the bench once again at Sale Sharks on Sunday, ready to come on more or less anywhere in the back line and thrilled to do so should the need arise. And with Munster concentrating their minds on the Magners League to a greater extent than they have done over the past few seasons, he may well find himself seeing less game time than ever.

“The ambitious part of you does get frustrated but I knew when I signed that Ronan was one of the best three or four out-halves in the world and if people are saying that I might be pushing him, I’m flattered at that,” he smiles. “It’s a case of being in a big club and having competition for spots. If there is an injury or whatever, it’s great to be in control of the best team in Europe. Last week, I played for 30 minutes and that’s three times more than I played in the whole Heineken Cup last year.”

And then, of course, there’s the little matter of the All Blacks returning to open the new Thomond Park after their famous defeat there by Munster on October 31, 1978. O’Gara will be on international duty at the time and so Warwick should have the chance to play a key role in a game the whole country wants to see.

“That’s an exciting prospect alright,” he agrees. “It hands an opportunity to guys like myself even though not having a full squad out against them probably detracts from the competitiveness of the occasion. It will be massive with an electric atmosphere and a lot of passionate supporters.”

Reflecting on the Montauban game and looking ahead to Sale Sharks on Sunday, he is at one with all his colleagues when accepting that last week was far from ideal and that this latest assignment could hardly be more demanding.

“If we played to the best of our ability against Montauban, there was definitely the option of a bonus point but we didn’t and it ended up a bit of a struggle,” he acknowledged. “We weren’t far off, mind you. If a few of those passes stuck, it would have been a different game. What has frustrated the squad is knowing we weren’t far off getting a result. I think the mind set this week will be where it should be. It’s always a good thing when you get a result after not playing well.”

Warwick, who lives in Castleconnell, Co Limerick with his Mallow-born wife Carol Hickey, first heard about what was happening in Ireland from his compatriot, Andrew Farley, the Connacht second-row forward. The western province were in need of an out-half back in 2004 and the timing couldn’t have been better.

“I had lost a contract with the Queensland Reds and as a young fellow was getting ahead of myself and not taking my opportunities so it was a second coming for me,” he says. “I played for Connacht for three seasons. After that, I was getting a little more ambitious and wanted to know where my rugby could take me. I always had the ambition to play in a really big team.

“Coming to Ireland, I didn’t really know about Munster at all, their track record in Europe and so on. But Tony McGahan, now our head coach, had taught me at school in Brisbane and I ran in to him and we had a chat and talked to Declan (Kidney) and things progressed. It was a great move. You know when you take the field that you’ve got a responsibility to live up to the fellow who was in the jersey before you.”