Reds’ only goal is victory, insists O’Leary

WHEN most were floundering in the face of unbelievable Leinster physicality, one Munster man held his nerve at the RDS last Saturday night.

As the men in red trooped off dejected, Tomás O’Leary had one small consolation. At least he had performed to the high standards he had set himself over the previous few years and looked very much the Lion he would have been had a serious and ill-timed injury not intervened.

O’Leary, who celebrates his 26th birthday in 12 days, has become an integral part of the Munster side since making his scrum-half debut in the Heineken Cup against Gloucester at Kingsholm in 2008. And now, after the debacle of the RDS, he fully realises the need for a big result this evening at Franklin’s Gardens, otherwise Munster’s season will be in crisis almost before it has begun.