‘I don’t think I’ve been 100% for a game in 10 years’

Frustrated by injury and overlooked by the Lions, Munster’s Denis Leamy has plenty of incentives at Croke Park today. He spoke to Charlie Mulqueen.

PRIOR to Tomás O’Leary’s heart-rending injury at Musgrave Park last Friday, there is little doubt that Denis Leamy had fully earned the tag of Ireland’s Unluckiest Player of the season.

Between serious knocks to his shoulders and knee, he spent far too much time in operating rooms and rehab facilities and not enough on the training ground and the field of play. Consequently, he struggled to keep his place in the back-row of the Irish scrum and that led to his omission from the Lions touring party to South Africa when he had looked a banker before the season began.

It’s not something Denis likes to dwell on. Instead, and in keeping with the attitude of all his Munster team mates, the focus is on one match – today’s clash with Leinster. Trouble this time, though, is that Munster go into the game as favourites, Leinster as underdogs, and it’s not a situation that sits too easily with them.

“Irish teams have always vied for the position of underdog,” he says. “It’s something we have used to our advantage in Munster. Now this is a new situation we have had to learn to deal with it over the past couple of years because we’re favourites for most games. It’s taken a while but I think we’re dealing with it quite well.

“Do we deserve to be favourites? I don’t know. We don’t make that decision. People are telling us we’re favourites, the bookies are making us favourites. They’ve got a job to do, money to earn, that’s their opinion and fair play to them. We’ll be going out to do a job and it won’t matter to us whether we’re favourites or not.

“Complacency? It’s human nature, I suppose, but I’d be very disappointed if that happened with us. We lost in 2007 over in Llanelli because of complacency and because we weren’t hungry enough. That’s one of the biggest regrets in a lot of our careers, that we didn’t back up 2006 with a cup final appearance the following season. We left Llanelli that night without firing a shot. It’s a game that’s embedded in our memories and hopefully we won’t let it happen again.

“We’re playing Leinster, who, let us be honest, are our biggest rivals. Everyone seems to get up for it and we’ll be up for it and I don’t have much doubt about that.”

Denis Leamy, as befits somebody born not far from the hurling hotbed of Cashel, was a gaelic games enthusiast in his younger days and it was only when he went to Rockwell at the age of 12 that he took to rugby. He was a brilliant schoolboy player and it was in his final two years at the famed Co Tipperary academy that he first encountered what it means to pull on a red Munster jersey for a joust with the blue of Leinster.

“The first time I played against Leinster was for the Munster schools in 1998,” he says. “It was a really horrible wet day in Musgrave Park and the game finished in a 3-3 draw. Tony Buckley was playing for Leinster and also Shane Jennings. After two years with Munster schools, I moved on to the U20s and Munster and Leinster both lost to Connacht that year and we were left to play for pride only out in Thomond Park. I think we won.

“Even then, I was conscious that Munster-Leinster games were special. At school level, we hadn’t beaten them for years and the idea was that they had all the big schools up there and that we were a soft touch. But we drew with them the first year and managed to beat them the year after. The games always had a bit of spice, there was always that local rivalry and it’s a great rivalry and I suppose it has gotten bigger and bigger with the arrival of professional rugby.”

Leamy left Rockwell with a reputation as one of the most promising back-row forwards in the country, a young man blessed with natural football ability, an imposing physical presence and a mindset that wouldn’t recognise danger even if the word was spelt out in front of him in large red letters. He was already well-known to Declan Kidney, the Munster coach.

“The first year out of school, Deccie brought me in as a development player,” Denis recalls. “He put a contract on the line between myself, Peter Malone and a couple of other guys. We basically had to train for the summer and battle it out. He gave me the contract as a Development/Academy player and I was there for the team meetings leading up to the big games and listened to the way the players spoke and reacted afterwards and that was a great learning curve.”

A cruciate injury could have ruined everything but Leamy came back hungry and determined to make his mark and a combination of that ambition and his innate skill and toughness ensured that he would get there. All the time, Leinster were lurking and Leamy recalls an unusually large number of matches between the sides.

“Leinster had beaten Munster in the Celtic League final around that time and that only added to the huge rivalry between the teams,” he noted. “We always looked forward to those games. They were a great challenge. The crowd interest was building and it was 2004 at Musgrave Park when Axel (Anthony Foley) managed to tackle Darce (Gordon D’Arcy) into touch in the corner and I still don’t know where he came from. That was the highlight of a game that we just won.

“It was a Christmastime fixture and the ground was full but there was no great demand for tickets. There are going to be 80,000 plus there at the weekend and you could probably fill the stadium two or three times over. It’s amazing the way it has taken on a life of its own. The first taste we got of that was the semi-final of ‘06, that this was getting really, really big. It was then that we really became aware of the extra pressure, that the rivalry had grown out of all expectations and that these games had taken on a sort of All-Ireland feel to them.

“We came out that day and saw all the red and realised how much this meant to so many people. It registers with you and gives you the extra bit of a lift but at that time you’re so focused that you just have to move on with the game. We all realised there was a huge presence of Munster fans there and it probably helped to put you at ease a little bit more and give you that extra lift. It definitely was a factor for us and as it turned out, it was a fantastic day for Munster and is one of the games that will always be remembered.”

WHERE ‘08/’09 is concerned, however, the frustrations and disappointments endured by Denis Leamy can only be imagined. No sooner would he come back after one injury than another came almost immediately on stream. The famous night of the Munster-All Blacks game in November was the classic example. He was led off after 20 minutes, one of those shoulders having again succumbed to the mayhem going on all around him.

“It’s been frustrating, a funny season really, a lot of ups and downs”, he says. If there was a trace of bitterness in his tone, it’s difficult to detect. “I’ve had a bad run of it,” he says ruefully. “What can I say? I’m a bit jinxed at the moment and it’s been very frustrating. There have been times when I’ve been pretty down about it. To come back from one injury to pick up another one is very difficult. But to get back and get fit enough to play among the boys in this team is a great carrot and it’s games like on Saturday that keep you going and that get you through the hard times.

“I’m very grateful to the medical teams with Munster and Ireland. I’ve worked hard with Anthony Coole in Cork and Brian Green, the physio with Ireland. He’s been travelling up and down the whole time since last August working on my shoulder and my knee and shoulder again. I’ve got very close to Brian because of that and he’s been the guy who has influenced me most and talked me through the injuries.

“Hopefully I’ve put it behind me now and I can look forward to finishing out the season. I got my right shoulder repaired last July and did my rehab and came back and unfortunately hurt my knee shortly after that in Llanelli. That set me back another bit and then I returned halfway through the season without a whole lot of rugby played.

“Trying to start from there was difficult but it was enjoyable to be involved in the Six Nations. But the one start I did get, I hurt my left shoulder. I was in a lot of pain for a few weeks afterwards, but it has started to settle now and hopefully come the pre-season I can rehab and get everything sorted.

“It meant I had to play through a bit of pain but that’s something you have to do. Everybody goes through that and it’s not a big deal in professional rugby. I don’t think I’ve been a 100% for a game in 10 years. You just get on with it and get yourself as fit as you can and do as good a job as you can.”

No sign of self pity. Instead, Leamy knows full well that at 27, time is on his side where adding to his 39 Irish caps, a Grand Slam, three Triple Crowns and two Heineken Cup medals is concerned. For now, though, he doesn’t look beyond what this Saturday evening has to offer.

“As a young fella, from the age of five to 12, playing at Croke Park was my dream but once I became serious about rugby, my aspirations changed,” he says about the mystical venue. “My dad first brought me there in 1988 as a seven year-old and I have happy memories of watching Tipp win an All-Ireland in 1989. It’s a completely different stadium now, it’s unrecognisable, but certainly to play there is a great honour.”