‘Musical’ jerseys gives Fogarty a chance to shine

CALL it musical jerseys. When Keith Wood got injured for Munster, Frankie Sheahan took over. When Sheahan got injured, Jerry Flannery took over. Now Flannery is on the physio’s table and Denis Fogarty owns the number two jersey.

Is it, er, jinxed?

“Maybe it is,” says Fogarty with a grin. “Ah, you just have to take your chance when it comes, and Jerry did. He’s gone on and on to the Lions and so on. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”

The opportunity is a Heineken Cup start against Treviso. Munster are forewarned about the Italians, who shocked Perpignan last weekend.

“They pride themselves on their set-piece, they work hard there and we’re under no illusions about what we’re up against. Paul (O’Connell) is a good operator in the line-out, a good caller of the ball, so I’ll take confidence from that. It’s my first time playing with him this season, and a few of the other Lions, so we’ve worked hard with them.

“We’re focusing on ourselves first of all. Take the last 30 minutes against Northampton, we’ve taken a lot of positives out of that. We’re all looking for a good performance and to play well.”

After two defeats Munster are in the market for a good performance. Fogarty is frank when reminded of Munster’s poor line-out performance in the first half against Leinster a couple of weeks ago, after which he got hammered . . .

“I did, yeah.”

Was that unfair?

“I wouldn’t say an unfair hammering, no, I looked at the line-outs and all I can do is throw it to where it’s been called. If they (the opposition) go up against it I can’t do anything about it – and they did that in that game, they defended well.

“I got a bit of stick for it but I put my hand up for one of the throws – I overthrew it to the back – and I made a mistake. You get on with it, if things go wrong they go wrong and you make up for it out on the pitch after that.

“It’s a bit frustrating but I have to keep taking small steps forward, and things have gone well in other areas of my game, so I’m quite confident things will go well.

“Obviously we’ve worked on the line-out. Things go wrong at times but we’ve worked hard on it, particularly with the lads who’ve come in, Paul and Donncha. We’re confident the line-out will work this weekend.”

With Jerry Flannery and Rory Best out injured Ireland coach Declan Kidney isn’t overburdened with options at hooker. Is the new man thinking about a green jersey to go with the red?

“I haven’t really thought about that,” says Fogarty, “This weekend is a must-win game for us.”

Still, his older brother John is doing him a favour, keeping Bernard Jackman out of the Leinster line-up.

“I’ve kept saying that to him, ‘keep going the way you’re going, you’re doing alright!’” he says.

“He’s done well and he’s deserved his spot. But (Bernard) Jackman isn’t going to lie down, they’ll be fighting tooth and nail for that spot all year.

“It’s about game time now and this weekend is another chance for me, another chance to put my hand up for Declan Kidney.”

First things first. Fogarty is frank about the disappointment with the result in Franklin’s Gardens and John Hayes’ suspension, but he also points to a couple of positives Munster drew from the Northampton game.

“We made too many mistakes in the first half. Treviso aren’t the pushovers they were, and we can’t make the mistakes we made against Northampton – three mistakes and you’re 21 points down.

“But looking at the last half-hour, we stopped them getting a bonus point and got one ourselves, so that’s what we’ll be taking forward from the game. John (Hayes) is a huge player to lose, he’s been unfortunate, but Tony Buckley has done very well.

“We’ve worked hard on the scrums and we want to bring that forward. The front row that played against Gwent (Dragons) a couple of weeks ago is the front row this Saturday, so we want to bring that on again.”