Munster’s Mr Reliable answering the call
The captain’s presence has been vital to the team’s cause and many believed Munster would be no-hopers without him. However, that’s where Mick O’Driscoll comes into the equation.
While it would be silly to suggest O’Connell hasn’t been missed over the last few weeks, O’Driscoll has responded to the call so well that the Munster pack was at its mighty best in the quarter-final Heineken defeat of Northampton and again when beating Connacht in the Magners League in Galway with a shadow team.
There is a perception Micko is in the twilight of his career but in fact he is only 31, an age at which many professionals are at their best.
“I suppose I’m pushing on a small bit but you look at guys like Quinny and Hayes who are four or five years older and they’re flying,” he says. “I have another year left on my contract and after that we’ll reassess. When you’re younger, you kind of think that when you’re 30-plus you’re going to struggle but at the minute we have quite a few guys in that bracket and they’re showing no signs of letting up.
“It’s always encouraging when guys older than me prove they can do it week in, week out. It takes longer to get over games, definitely, but other than that, we have a very good fitness staff here who look after guys very well. Through working with them and the coaches, guys get a decent amount of rest when it’s needed.”
Paul O’Connell would be the first to acknowledge O’Driscoll’s contribution over the past decade and even more so recently when the captain was unable to answer the call. Many shrewd judges believe it would be harsh to leave O’Driscoll out of the side, whether or not the captain was available.
“For me personally, it’s been tough over the years,” he admits without the slightest sign of self-pity.
“When Donners and Paulie are fit, they’re generally the guys who start but I stayed here because I love it so much. I was signing contracts knowing I’d probably be third choice. That’s just the way it was. For me, all I can do is my best week in, week out, and hope that is good enough for me to start whatever games I can.
“No team of Munster’s calibre could survive with just two second-row forwards. Obviously, we also have Donnacha Ryan who’s injured at the moment and Billy Holland has been outstanding for us in the last couple of games so the idea here is to build as big and good a squad as we can and I think we’re doing that.
“Obviously, we want to win both competitions and the Heineken Cup is probably that little more special. The performance against Northampton was very encouraging although there are still a lot of areas to work on. To beat a team like Northampton as we did was fairly impressive. They’re up at the top of the Guinness Premiership and while people are saying they had a very young side, it doesn’t seem to matter to them.
“In cup competitions, you’re going to have to beat some of the top teams away from home at some point. We have done so in the pool stages over the years and now we have to go to Biarritz, Leinster have go to Toulouse, so for an Irish side to get to the final is going to be very, very tough.
“From our side of things, it’s something we feel we can do. We can go to Biarritz and win. We don’t see that as a huge obstacle but we really, really do need to perform to the same level as we did against Northampton, and a bit more as well.
“For me, we’re probably at our best when the pressure is on — like when we went to Perpignan and had to win. When you have to pull out a performance, we have proved over the years that we can do it. But you also try and learn from past experiences like last year when we got beaten by Leinster and make sure it doesn’t happen again in San Sebastian.
“The important thing is we’re putting a few results together although we know ourselves we haven’t played as well as we would have hoped this season. We’re still in two competitions and while that’s the case, that’s a very good sign. I suppose the age profile of the side is getting on a little so the most encouraging thing for me at the weekend was to see that drop a bit and still come away with a win.”
Munster’s Magners League triumph last season resulted largely from the success achieved when the large international contingent was away and O’Driscoll was the inspirational leader on those occasions.
It’s been more or less the same this time except that he is now closer than ever to pushing O’Connell and O’Callaghan for a place on the bigger days. But the bread and butter of Magners League still ranks highly on the pecking order. Sunday’s win in Galway, for instance, gave him a lot of satisfaction.
“In fairness to Connacht, they have made massive strides in getting to the semi-finals of the Amlin Cup,” he said. “You look at the other three teams in it and think, wow, that’s amazing. They beat Bourgoin which is no mean feat and as a result of that, the atmosphere at our game was superb. They’re obviously getting a few more people there, we also had a good bit of support, and it can only be good for Irish rugby.”
While the Biarritz game looms ever closer, the priority for O’Driscoll remains this evening’s visit of the Ospreys to Thomond Park.
As he points out: “There’s no margin of error left for us. You want a home semi-final and taking Leinster out of it, there are five teams looking for three spots. If we beat Ospreys and Cardiff, we are guaranteed a home semi-final and you need that.
“Beat Ospreys and it’s a guaranteed semi-final spot against someone. But they only lost by a point in Biarritz and we know them inside out as they know us and it’s going to be a very tough game. They defend slightly differently to other teams and their counterattack is massive so they’re the two areas you concentrate on when you take on a side like the Ospreys.”
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