O’Connell walks tall among giants
For the second week in a row, he took a crucial Heineken Cup tie by the scruff of the neck in Montauban yesterday and led his side to a big win over very decent opposition. They are now three matches away from joining Leicester Tigers as the only side to retain the trophy and O’Connell was a hugely influential figure as Montauban were put to the sword.
“It’s always easy to be at a hundred per cent when everything isn’t on the line and because that wasn’t the case today, I thought this was a very good performance,” he maintained. “After all the negative kind of press we had got, it was an easy week for us to be able to play against Sale. This week, was a lot different, there was the upset of not playing on Saturday and apart from the first ten minutes, for the boys to go out and put in such a ruthless and professional performance was top-class and a strong sign of the mentality of the squad.”
Munster only led 10-6 at the interval having pounded the Montauban line for a good ten minutes. But O’Connell believed that period of supremacy was to prove crucial as the four tries came on stream on the turnover.
“They paid for that pressure, you have to pay the price when you have to defend and defend like that for so long,” he maintained. “It’s easier to attack, easier on your legs and lungs. Donncha O’Callaghan was just talking about that over the last few weeks we’ve had a few soft tries but I think they’ve come from sustained pressure.”
Typically, this vastly experienced band of sportsmen refused to be fazed by Saturday’s postponement with O’Connell explaining with a contented smile: “We had a nice day. We had an indoor soccer tournament, went for a meal, watched a few movies in the team room and hung around together and enjoyed each other’s company.
“That’s one of the good things about this team, we enjoy each other’s company. We had a good laugh and were ready to play today. The wind yesterday would have been 40 minutes into a gale and 40 minutes with a gale and it comes down to refereeing decisions and penalties. That’s a little bit of a lottery and today the lottery was taken out of it.”
The concession of penalties is hurting this team and O’Connell again stressed it’s something they are trying to deal with.
As for quarter-final opponents, the Ospreys, O’Connell shrugged: “They’re all good teams at this stage but having the game at Thomond Park is massive for us and it’s massive for our supporters. Look at the amount of them here again today. I went for a walk Saturday night and met some who had changed their flights and took an extra day off work so that they could come to the game. I’m thrilled for them that they don’t have to dig deep into their pockets yet again.”
Coach Tony McGahan described yesterday’s outing as “very tough”.
“We came here to get a result. That was our aim before the start and we took a lot of juice out of them in the first half. A few early turnovers and four back to back penalties to zero at the beginning were frustrating but this performance was always coming.
“We kept the ball in hand, we focused well and the pitch was very heavy and those kind of conditions bring everyone back to a bit of a level so it was very important for us to maintain our focus and intensity. It was good to get the job done.”
Of Tomás O’Leary, McGahan commented: “He played very well today and again last week and is going into a Six Nations campaign in very good form.”
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