O’Callaghan aiming to reward fans

DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN hopes to repay the Munster supporters for their patience at Thomond Park today.

And the Irish and Lions star doesn’t blame the fans for being frustrated with the province’s poor early season form.

O’Callaghan admitted: “I’m not surprised at the criticism or at their disappointment. When you’re involved in an organisation like ours, high standards are expected. We have dipped below that in some of our performances but it is certainly not for the lack of trying. You could say people are being tough on us but they expect (better) when they go to support Munster. They pay a lot for it, it is expensive to travel to matches so they deserve more for their buck.

“People are entitled to criticise but we know that the majority of the fans, maybe all of them, are fully behind us.”

O’Callaghan concedes that the last few weeks have been tough for the squad.

“Some of it has been hugely disappointing but you can’t carry over disappointments into another week; Monday and Tuesday (following the defeat by Edinburgh) we were pretty down but we have to look towards Ulster and start building momentum for this game. The most frustrating thing in Edinburgh was that they didn’t play any better than us; they never looked like scoring a try whereas we did, but didn’t take the chances. It was one of those games — Wally (David Wallace) was not awarded a try, Ger Earls was pinged back for a forward pass; we could still have picked up a win there having played poorly. When that happens, it can be even more frustrating.

O’Callaghan hasn’t forgotten last year’s Thomond Park clash with Ulster. He recalled: “We were beaten in all the battles, up front in the set pieces, at the breakdown, We won’t forget that, these (results) provide a hangover for a year, had it been against Edinburgh or Glasgow or another side, you might leave it slip, but because it was an Irish team it still hurts a lot.”