Quinlan: Leamy will bounce back

THERE was a time when Munster teams were dominated by players from the traditional rugby-playing areas of Cork and Limerick.

More recently, though, that trend has been gradually bucked starting with Kerry’s Mick Galwey who led the side to many of its greatest days in Europe. All the time, too, the influence of the other counties was growing with Tipperary especially prominent.

Alan Quinlan, from near Limerick Junction, was one of the first to make an impression and there has been a steady flow since led by Denis Leamy and maintained by Donnacha Ryan, Denis Fogarty and Tommy O’Donnell.

There were others, too, like Trevor Hogan, now with Leinster, and their contribution was not alone invaluable to the cause but also helped to swell the size of the Red Army.

Premier County fans rejoiced in their success and understandably so, too. Never was this more apparent than in Perpignan last month when Leamy, Quinlan, Fogarty and Ryan played major parts in a magnificent Munster victory.

Leamy produced his finest performance for the province and so there was a deep feeling of sadness among the squad when it was revealed he suffered a serious knee injury that would keep him out of action for the rest of the season. And this week Quinlan expressed the sense of sympathy prevailing in the squad for his fellow Tipperary man.

“Our hearts go out to Denis,” he said. “Obviously, he was very down and disappointed. We had been frustrated by our performances before that game. As a group and individually, we were stuttering a bit. Everyone was trying hard to improve and a lot came right for us that day. There was a good feeling after the match, not that we had turned the corner, but that we had taken a few steps forward.

“For Denis not to be part of the rest of the season is a massive blow. But knowing the guy, he’s a massive character, he can come back from it – I’m sure he’ll come back from it. He had a problem with his knee for the last 14 or 15 months since he hurt it in Llanelli. People questioned his form on and off but obviously that had an impact on some of his performances. He had damage to his cruciate and so in some ways it’s a good thing that he’ll get time for that to heal properly and come back fresh for next season. He’s still young and will be a massive player for Munster and Ireland for years to come.”

Quinlan knows well the pain of being sidelined. He admitted: “I’ve had a few long-term injuries so I know what he’s going through. At the time, it seems like the end of the world but I’m sure with the help and support of the lads he’ll bounce back. I think it’s important for us now to go on and win something for Denis.

“Perpignan was one of his best performances in a long, long time and that’s no disrespect to the guy. We all have massive belief in Denis in what he can do. He’s an international quality player and any team losing a man of that calibre, he’s going to be a loss. He’s going to be a massive loss but that’s the nature of the game. We have to adapt now and somebody else is going to come in and get an opportunity.”

It would be a travesty should Munster fail to go on and build on the heroics of Perpignan and after listening to Quinlan, you sense they just won’t allow it to happen.

“Hopefully we can kick on now and perform over the next three matches because the internationals are away then for six weeks”, he says.

“We play three Magners League games and then you’re almost into April. That’s the time of year when you want to peak. Last year, we had a great game against the Ospreys in the quarter-finals and then under-performed against Leinster and we want to make up for that.

“We brought out our best performances in the knock-out stages in 2008 when we beat Gloucester, Saracens and Toulouse. We were hopping off the sod and produced the performance. But we can’t sit back and say, ‘let’s peak at the end of the season’, we need to maintain the momentum going forward.”

Like most other members of the Munster squad, Alan Quinlan isn’t sure whether the IRFU-imposed two-match break after every six games is a good thing although he agrees that “you just can’t play week-in, week-out and certainly we’ll be fresh over the next few weeks. The positive is that we’ll all be chomping at the bit, starting with the Scarlets.

“The next few weeks can define our season. Obviously the result in Perpignan was fantastic and put us in a good position in the Heineken Cup and we also had a very positive result against Connacht in the Magners League. It was disappointing to lose to Ulster last week but there were positives to be taken from it, like still being in contention going into the last few minutes and could have won the game. Hopefully we can build on that momentum and if we get good results over the next few weeks, that will set us up nicely for the business end of the season.”