O’Callaghan: We have been warned
At least that’s the scenario painted yesterday by Donncha O’Callaghan, who revealed that a tongue-lashing from the normally mild-mannered Ireland head coach Declan Kidney last week had scared the squad witless at the very thought they might leave a hand in at the ruck, go off their feet or fail to release a tackler.
All of the above nearly cost Ireland a victory over Scotland 10 days ago that should have been far more comprehensive than the 21-18 scoreline will show in the record books. And when the subject was inevitably broached by Kidney during a squad get-together at Carton House last week, O’Callaghan said the players were left under no illusions as to the consequences of further transgressions.
“The silly ones will always annoy you,” O’Callaghan said yesterday, “and I think anyone who was in our meeting with Deccie in Carton House wouldn’t want to be on the end of a silly penalty this week because, to be fair, you probably know him all as a nice man and really calm and composed but he let fly on Tuesday and you just don’t want to be in there.”
Of the rare loss of temper from Kidney, O’Callaghan said it made the message all the more effective.
“I can remember one or two with Munster but he was fairly annoyed, to be fair,” O’Callaghan said of his former provincial boss.
“You can say you should self-police within the team and Paul (O’Connell) and Drico (Brian O’Driscoll) were saying it, but none of it would carry the weight when it came from Deccie there on Tuesday.
“You could see it’s the main man calling the shots there and guys didn’t want to re-offend.
“That’s within keeping the balance of it – you don’t want to be playing with 15 altar boys. There are certain balls you have to contest, and there are certain penalties we’re going to give away.
“But it’s getting the balance right between the crazy, stupid ones that just cost your team.
“It’s tough for him to be that blunt and direct. It’s a kind of side to him that you don’t like to see too much.”
O’Callaghan said he and the rest of the players could not afford to be so lax again in Test match rugby as they had been against the Scots.
“I suppose we gave away 12 penalties and they say in international rugby you tend to give away eight, so exactly, we had four stupid penalties and you can control those ones.
“International rugby is brilliant. One mistake is punished. You might get away with stuff at club and provincial level but here, give away a penalty and your man hits it over from 50 yards. Miss a tackle and they score under the posts. It’s just unforgiving and it’s brilliant.”
O’Callaghan unwittingly tapped into one of the hot topics of the previous game’s build-up – communication – when he talked of the adjustments needed to cope better with the new style of play required in the tackle area under the latest law interpretations.
“There is a bit or learning in it but the big thing is that your team-mates can help you out.
“If you can hear the ref saying, ‘leave that’, I’d be honest with you sometimes you’re locked on the ball and you can hear nothing else and it’s just great if your team-mates can give you a tap and let you know that ball is not for us anymore, it’s taken, leave it off.
“So it’s hard to get a balance on it because you want to contest and you want to make every breakdown as tough as possible, otherwise we’re just playing rugby league. And it’s trying to get the balance in that.
“I actually watched a rugby league match the other night and they know him by first name, it’s like, ‘leave that ball Kevin Sinfield’ and stuff like this.
“It’s just an incredible level. To be honest if we had that – I’m not saying it should be the case, but you’re just in no doubt whereas some of the referees are no warning refs which, I think, the game is gone away from.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m 18 stone and I can’t get away on the ground in under two seconds. You need to allow fellas time.”
Different problems for different times and O’Callaghan was this week given a stark reminder of the expectations surrounding this current squad, which led to skipper O’Driscoll complaining yesterday about negativity surrounding the progress of the current Irish team.
O’Callaghan said: “I was watching the show on Moss Finn last night and you saw when they won the Triple Crown and people were running on the pitch, lifting them off it.
“And you’re thinking if we won a Triple Crown at the moment, they’d probably be giving out to us.
“People’s expectations are way higher than they should be and I think that’s not a bad thing.
“I haven’t really noticed it, but people could just try be nicer to Drico, it would be appreciated – wish him good morning because he’s obviously getting a hard time.
“He should move to Cork, it’s very nice in Cork.”
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