Donncha carrying Ireland burden

Donncha O’Callaghan will charge into action against arch rivals Leinster tomorrow night believing any provincial success would not make up for the disappointment of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign.

O’Callaghan is set to return to duty for Munster for the marquee RaboDirect Pro12 clash with league leaders Leinster, determined to give his all for the second-placed province and make up for the bitter memory of Ireland’s last-day humbling by England at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day.

The lock had an uncomfortably close-up view of the mauling Ireland received at scrum-time that day and is ruing the fact it came in the last Test of the championship, leaving the international players no chance to make amends until this summer’s three-Test tour to New Zealand.

“You carry a fair bit of the Irish stuff with you and it was hugely disappointing the way we performed in the last game,” O’Callaghan said.

“It’s a pity, when you lose like that you want to go out the following week. The provinces could go well now but it probably wouldn’t make up for the disappointment of this year’s championship. For the quality of the team we had, we under-performed and you carry that with you as a bit of a burden.”

O’Callaghan said the pack as a whole should share the blame for the misfiring scrum rather than focus Ireland’s shortcomings on the front-row and the much-discussed tighthead position in particular.

“The big thing is it is an all-eight thing. They are a bit like line-outs: when they go bad everyone blames the hooker and when they go well everyone says the jumpers went great. And scrums are like that. Everyone was talking about how great the pack was but when it goes bad for one or two it is blame the tight-head.”

With fellow locks Donnacha Ryan and Paul O’Connell both absent through injury, O’Callaghan could be forgiven for wanting to use this weekend’s showdown as an opportunity to stake his claim for a starting place in next week’s European quarter-final against Ulster on Easter Sunday.

Both Ryan and O’Connell are expected to be available for selection in nine days and having been Tony McGahan’s first-choice second-row pairing at the start of the pool stages, O’Callaghan might feel he has a point to prove against Leinster having been one of Ireland’s first-choice locks throughout the Six Nations. Not a bit of it, he insisted.

“Hasn’t really felt like it. If I’m given an opportunity I want to play well and that’s the case when there’s competition for places, which there has been. It’s all about the team, all about the province, whatever it takes for us to win.

“Some things are outside your control so you just control what you do on the pitch and I’d like to think that when called upon I’ve done my part. That’s always important. I’d hate to in any way drain this squad, it means too much to me.”

O’Callaghan said any personal frustration at being overlooked for a starting place had to be suppressed for the good of the Munster cause.

“I think that’s a selfish trait if you put yourself before the lads, it would kill me if that happened.”

It will certainly be all hands to the pump for Munster against the RaboDirect Pro12 leaders Leinster, with O’Callaghan set to face their short-term signing Brad Thorn, the New Zealand World Cup winner he rates as the best number four in rugby.

“You like to judge yourself off the best in the world and I think he’s the best lock in the world in that ‘four’ position. He brings everything to it.

“It’s huge, so I wouldn’t say (I’m) looking forward to it. You’d be apprehensive and you’d like to come off the pitch having earned maybe a bit of respect from the man.”