Wallace: We can’t wait to unleash O’Connell again
With his form making him one of the best Irish performers so far this season, Wallace is a pivotal figure in the Reds’ set-up but O’Connell is a talismanic figure for province and country, amongst the players just as much as the supporters.
That was confirmed by Andrew Trimble’s almost reverential description of the lock’s pre-match speech before Ireland beat England in the Six Nations. While Wallace isn’t ever going to go down that route, given that he’s been around longer and is older than O’Connell, his quiet acknowledgment of what it would mean to have his long-time colleague around if Munster were to reach the finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup and Magners League is telling nonetheless.