O’Connell: No need for scalpel, just hard work
Sunday’s demoralising and era-ending defeat in Toulon has left many on the outside, and probably some within, the Munster camp to consider major surgery on the existing set-up, with a raft of new personnel coming in for next season.
Yet O’Connell, who started his first Heineken Cup game in a year in the 32-16 Pool Three loss at Stade Mayol, said yesterday, ahead of Saturday’s final group game at home to London Irish, that his beloved province just have to work through their problems and wait for the corner to be turned.
“Coming home on the plane, I felt as low as I’ve ever felt in rugby terms,” O’Connell revealed yesterday. “There’s nothing you can do in a week than can transform everything. All you can do is work hard. “That’s what we’ll do on Saturday. We’ll keep working hard through it, make sure players are working as hard as they have all year. I would reiterate how hard guys have worked. It’s been phenomenal. It’s just a small dip in form that’s been backed up in a few games. Normally we haven’t put bad performances together and now we probably have done that in a few big games.
“That run of form has hurt us and probably knocked us back a bit and the only way out of this is hard work. Guys being mentally strong, being diligent in their work, in their training and in their preparation and you just come out of these things through staying strong and working hard.”
O’Connell said he did not believe the current first team was over-the-hill, but players had reached an important moment in their careers.
“As a team, we’re at a crossroads. We need to figure what we’re doing in terms of how we’re playing. We’re not putting in the big performances as often as we’d have liked and we need to figure that out and improve what we’re doing, individually as players and as a team. Certainly the age profile is older than what it was in the past but I think there’s plenty left in a lot of players. We need to look at ourselves individually, what we’re doing, and as a team and turn it around and start putting in big performances in these big games, like we used to.
“Every team has mileage on the clock and players with a lot miles on the clock. The desire in training is every bit there as it was when I came into the squad, probably more after the way things have gone after the last few years. The effort put in by the coaching staff is nothing short of phenomenal, it would put me off coaching nearly, the amount of hours those guys put in.” O’Connell said he saw parallels with Ireland’s malaise before Declan Kidney steered the national side to the Grand Slam in 2009.
“We had a very disappointing World Cup in 2007 and it didn’t turn around straight away during 2008 in the Six Nations but by 2009 we won a Grand Slam. Guys just need to keep working hard and a corner will be turned.”
Whether Munster can round it in time for Saturday’s final pool game at home to London Irish is open to debate as it will be the first time in 13 seasons that the province does not have a quarter-final to look forward to.
“For most of us it’s very unusual, but the big thing for us is that it’s a home game,” he said.
“It’s a home European Cup game at Thomond Park, and a lot of the players feel we owe the supporters a lot, a big performance. That’s where our motivation will be coming from at the weekend.”
O’Connell was one of three Munster players to have served suspensions this season while Toulon capitalised on the Irish side’s two spells without a full complement on Sunday following Donncha O’Callaghan and Ronan O’Gara’s yellow cards.
“There are a few things we can correct straight away, like our discipline, the soft tries, and the penalties which we conceded — which (Jonny) Wilkinson slotted to put us in a really tough situation at the weekend.
“If we sort out our disciplinary record we’ll be a long way towards achieving parity with a lot of the big teams. I don’t think there is anything mental there, we have a lot of experience, and we can figure it out.”
Meanwhile Connacht last night announced two year contract extensions for Frank Murphy, Miah Nikora and Ronan Loughney.
The agreement follows confirmation that prop Jamie Hagan has re-signed, along with the re-introduction of George Naoupu at the end of the season.
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