‘You don’t get many shots at this’
At least that’s the way Denis Leamy puts it.
Renewal in the sense of a reappraisal of what it takes for Munster to succeed at the highest level. Rebirth on a personal level after a long road back from injury and a resolve running through the squad to bounce back from last year’s disappointments.
All three will get their strongest challenge so far this evening when Munster arrive at Reading’s Madejski Stadium to take on English Premiership high-fliers London Irish in their opening Group C contest. French moneybags Toulon and Welsh powerhouse Ospreys lie in wait further down the road following a tough draw but temporary captain Leamy believes the two-time champions have rediscovered their focus in the wake of devastating semi-final defeats at the tail end of last season.
Munster drew criticism after going down to Leinster and Biarritz in the Magners League and Heineken Cup respectively and Leamy, standing in as skipper for Paul O’Connell, does not think it was out of place.
“All last season, being 100% honest, we played in fits and starts and we struggled to get consistent form within our pack,” Leamy said. “We had injuries throughout the season as well but, you know what, the criticism is justified and very fair.
“You don’t need to pay a whole lot of attention to the media or our supporters, we know it ourselves and feel it ourselves. For whatever reason we just never clicked last season. We struggled in all the basic aspects of the game and it was a very, very disappointing end to the season, going out in two semi-finals. It’s something we’ve thought long and hard about.
“We’ve discussed it in meetings and a lot of us have got into the mind-set of rolling up our sleeves and working as hard as we possibly can to make things happen. Not to expect it to happen, just to go and dominate.”
Leamy, 28, believes the squad may have started to take success a little too for granted but that has quickly been eradicated.
“We realise that you don’t get too many shots at this. Your career is only a certain amount of years and you don’t get many chances. Having been successful in ‘06 and ‘08, some of us thought we’re going to continue for years but it doesn’t work like that.
“As soon as you drop off even a small bit another team passes you by. So we’ve had to regather ourselves, refocus and set new a challenge. We’d dropped below the standards we set for ourselves and it’s not being beaten in a semi-final, it’s the way we were beaten in both of those semi-finals. We didn’t play to our ability, we didn’t make it hard for the team that beat us and we were just very disappointed in the manner it happened.
“At Munster we never mind if a team deserves to beat us and we’ve played to our ability but to go out like that was very disappointing.”
Long gone are the days when reaching the last four was considered a success. When you’ve enjoyed lifting that trophy a couple of times you become hungry to repeat the feat.
“We ask to be judged by the highest standards and if we fall from those and we get criticism we can’t say it’s unfair,” Leamy said. “Getting to semis isn’t enough for us. We need to be winning these competitions.”
LEAMY’S desire is driven in part by his absence from those two semi-finals last season. He missed the second half of last season after sustaining a serious knee injury in the dying seconds of Munster’s 37-14 win at Perpignan, as the visitors tried to secure a bonus point.
Doug Howlett scored a try to clinch it but three days later in a Dublin clinic, the day before Christmas Eve, Leamy went under the knife and would miss Ireland’s Six Nations campaign and Munster’s march to the Heineken Cup semis. Those were, he admitted, dark days, but the back rower credits the company of injured team-mates Donnacha Ryan and Darragh Hurley for helping him through.
“Unfortunately I’ve had three very bad injuries and I’ve found it very difficult in terms going through the rehab. So I was very low and it took me a while to warm to the idea of getting back into the gym. But having Donnacha and Darragh around, we formed our own little team.
“The gym can be a very lonely place but having two other fellas there like that was huge. It was very disappointing for them, obviously, but the fact that they were there certainly helped in a big, big way.
“There’s always low points in my experience. You just might be having a bad day, you might be tired, you might just not be motivated and you don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, but the conditioning coaches would have always been very gentle with us and coax us along. They’d get us into the sessions and then your natural competitive edge would return and you’d work hard. It’s not always easy, just to drag it out of yourselves when you know there’s a game at the weekend and another big prize there in front of the guys. That’s difficult.”
Heineken Cup match-days would have been the most difficult of all to sit out for Leamy and now he his eagerly looking forward to locking horns once more with Europe’s best.
“It’s a fantastic competition. Just to be back playing rugby is great, to be back involved and feel part of it. When you’re out you’re still part of the squad but you don’t have your shoulders to the wheel and you’re not out on the pitch making tackles or involved in games. You’re on the periphery, like a fan looking in and asking other players how it’s going in training. That’s very difficult but to be back now and to have such big games coming up is really good.
“The Heineken Cup is definitely a step up, let’s not try and kid anyone here. The Magners League is a great competition that’s growing year on year with some very good quality teams but there’s a different intensity, a different mindset and it’s a great competition the European Cup.
“It comes one, twice every couple of months and the fans are very involved and that rubs off on us.”
THE group could have been easier, but the Munster back row wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We’d probably prefer like it that. There’s no doubt it brings the best out of us and it’s a great challenge. We’ve got to go to London Irish, a very good Premiership side, got to go to Toulon in France and it’s always very difficult down there, and then Ospreys, Magners League champions. So it’s very exciting, you want it that way, to play in big games, and it’s a great challenge for us.”
The structure of the competition, said Leamy, makes every group game a do-or-die affair.
“It’s special. I know it becomes knockout from the quarter-finals onwards but that’s not really the case. It’s knockout from when the first whistle blows in the first group game. Every point, every score, everything is vital and badly-needed and you’ve just got to fight for every little bit you can get.
“That’s what makes it such a great competition. You’re playing against the best in Europe and so many games go down to a score or a huge turning point and that’s what makes it so interesting and highly competitive.”
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