Now Donncha, it’s your turn to lead

DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN is always looking for an edge. He will always work harder than his colleagues to better himself. The Lions second row doesn’t have the flair and flamboyance of some of his team-mates, but he has a work ethic and a hunger for rugby knowledge unsurpassed by any player I have known.

The Cork-based Munster players have a top-quality training centre in an industrial estate just off Forge Hill on the southside of the city. It has a gym specifically equipped for elite rugby players, a laptop room for video analysis and a fully equipped medical room. Donncha spends a lot of his time there. There is also a social area with a sprawling coach, a widescreen television. The players go there to relax after a hard session, put their feet up and knock back some protein and carbohydrate supplement in order to refuel. It is also a convenient place to arrange to meet one of the additional advisors that Munster contract to aid player welfare.

A couple of seasons ago, I was just passing through this area after a particularly hard session when Donncha was meeting his nutritionist. The rest of us were heading off for an afternoon nap but Donncha wanted to learn. He had brought every fish oil and food supplement from his kitchen cabinets and was quizzing the poor girl on the best balance of food and exercise.

He was also an informed student. As I was walking out I heard him raising the topic of some new seaweed-based natural powder that was supposed to reduce inflammation and aid the body’s recovery. He was going to avail of all her knowledge to enhance his own capabilities and make him an even better player.

In the early days of his career, Donncha was not always an automatic selection. He had to bide his time in an era when John Langford, Mick Galwey and Mick O’Driscoll were the second-row incumbents. His frustration was palpable and he was young and eager and sometimes let his frustration get the better of him. But the arrival of Alan Gaffney was his making. Donncha got his chance. Regular match time helped smooth some of the rough edges to his game.

Gaffney was always willing to sit down with individual players after every match and go through your “moments”. It was a one-on-one coaching session with analysis of every aspect of your game. Most of us would sit with Gaffney a couple of times in the year and usually only after being confident of having played a pretty good match. Donncha availed of the service every week. That 60 minutes was, arguably, more instructive for O’Callaghan than a whole week on the training pitch. For the first time in his career, Donncha realised that instead of hopelessly attempting to be at every ruck, he could instead make a bigger impact at every second or third one. This would free him up to be a ball carrier or even a link man. Driven by a voracious appetite for knowledge, his game evolved rapidly.

Donncha still remains an eager user of video analysis. Technology has moved on and laptops are freely available to the squad. Games are broken down to such specific detail that players can research their opponents’ every move. But Donncha remains a leader when it comes to video usage. He will study every Biarritz lineout before tomorrow’s match and discuss their potential variations with his colleagues. Every regular pattern Biarritz run will be lodged in Donncha’s mind and he will know his role in every lineout and pattern Tony McGahan has planned for their Basque hosts.

Donncha is often publicly acknowledged as the class clown in the Munster squad. He is the joker, the one constantly looking for a laugh from every situation. I was in the infamous backline meeting during a training camp when a whole family of ducks waddled in, shepherded by O’Callaghan. We all had a good laugh – not least when Donncha had to clean up the inevitable deposits the ducks left behind.

He was also notorious for setting up unwanted opportunities for players. On one journey home from training in Limerick, I was contacted about my recent application to become a rugby referee, all completely set up by O’Callaghan.

But his juvenile facade disappears when it comes to his profession. Donncha means business when it comes to rugby and his game just gets better.

Tony McGahan has brought his skills to a new level. Ten metre passes hold no fear for him and his offloading around the fringes has brought a new threat to his ball-carrying ability.

Tomorrow Paul O’Connell is out and Donncha has to be Munster’s dominant second row. It’s his turn to be the leader.