Age no barrier for Malcolm

ELEVEN weeks have slipped by since Declan Kidney named his first Irish squad and Malcolm O’Kelly found himself surplus to requirements.

It was interpreted at the time as the beginning of the end for the big man in the professional game, the first in a series of steps that would see him edge closer to the exit. However, all the evidence since points to a player eager to cling on to the carousel.

Injury concerns over Paul O’Connell allowed him back into the international scene for the last of the three autumn internationals against Argentina in November and Michael Cheika has kept him busy since his return to club duty.

With Leo Cullen absent through injury since October, O’Kelly has featured in all six of Leinster’s games since. Three of them — including the back-to-backs against Castres — he started and he has been a member of the second-half cavalry in the others.

It is a workload that is testament to his professionalism at the age of 34 and his philosophy is reminiscent of an old baseball player Leroy ‘Satchel’ Paige who once remarked that age is a question of mind over matter: if you don’t mind, age doesn’t matter.

“I’m massively happy with the way I’m going at the moment. I couldn’t be happier with where I’m at in my age profile and I’m really coming into what I think personally is some really good form. I’ve had the odd blip definitely this season, which I’ve dealt with.

“For me it’s all about enjoyment and as long as I’m getting something out of it and I still want to push myself ... well, as soon as there’s no competition there you drop your performance level. For me, as long as I want to keep working harder and keep at it, I will.”

The old cliche about not being able to teach old dogs new tricks doesn’t seem to apply here. The new ELVs have shaken things up in the front five and necessitated some alterations to his own game. He has dealt with it without fuss.

In fairness, he has pretty much seen it all during his years as a pro. Capped 156 times for his province and 91 for his country, there have been other appearances besides for sides as diverse as St Mary’s, London Irish, the Barbarians and the Lions.

Most professions make allowances for such achievement and seniority by skimming the workload but rugby’s meritocracy is based on nothing more than a man’s last game so age counts for little when it comes to the day to day grind in training.

“It’s not so much age as what condition your body is in. You might wake up in the morning and feel terrible. The fact you can play the age card is sometimes in your favour but once you drop your level of training you drop your level of performance.

“You have to keep training like everyone else and you have to push yourself harder because you don’t have the recovery levels. If you don’t you start getting injured and picking knocks up so, for me, it’s about doing as much as I can and not getting on the retirement package.”

O’Kelly was the oldest player on Leinster’s roster until Ollie le Roux’s unexpected return to duty last week against Cardiff but both will bow to the more senior Simon Shaw when Leinster meet Wasps in Twickenham tomorrow.

O’Kelly compares his opposite number to Bob Casey, describing Shaw as a big hulk of a ball carrier, and there is a hint of admiration and envy when he discusses the Englishman’s disregard for modern tactics such as video analysis. Shaw’s liking for the old-fashioned, uncomplicated approach overlaps well with a game that is something of a trip down memory lane for O’Kelly. Chelmsford in Essex, his place of birth, is 50 miles down the road and London Irish’s spiritual home of Sunbury is just a handful of miles up the road.

O’Kelly was once on the Exiles’ books and his experiences in London have been padded out by many a trip to Twickenham with the Irish team where he has twice finished on the winning side.

The return of Cullen from injury, as well as the emergence of Devin Toner, threatens to put the squeeze on his playing time from now until the season’s end in May but he claims to be happy so long as he is in the mix.

“Leo is captain and he’s going to be playing and then there’s four of us vieing for one position. It’s a squad and guys have to get games. You can’t just go with two players the whole time, otherwise the other players get disillusioned. Everyone has to feel they are part of the squad and have involvement. It’s tough for me because I’ve been top two for I don’t know how many years. It’s difficult to take sometimes, but the fact is I’m still involved and I’m there at the final whistle and that’s pretty exceptional.”