Focused O’Donnell eager to learn from Munster’s masters

THERE was a time when Munster was the last place a promising young back-row forward would have looked when it came to forging a career as a professional rugby player.

It was where true greats of the game like Anthony Foley, David Wallace, Alan Quinlan, Denis Leamy and Jim Williams, to name but five, reigned supreme. A player of the calibre of Stephen Keogh read the situation well and decamped to Leinster.

John O’Sullivan was also deemed surplus to requirements and is now plying his trade in the south of France while Justin Melck and Jake Paringatai were recruited from abroad but didn’t measure up.