O’Donnell ready to answer Ireland’s call

‘Versatile’ Munster man in no doubt he can hold up his end of the bargain.

The job of a Test rugby replacement may not carry the glamour of a starting role but when you have spent Ireland’s autumn series watching from the top tier of the Aviva Stadium, Tommy O’Donnell is happy to tell you he would rather be sitting on the bench than the stands.

For all the desire deep within every Ireland squad member to make the starting XV during this RBS 6 Nations campaign, bench duty is the very much the next best thing and against a powerful Wales side priding itself on being fitter, faster and stronger than their rivals, the Irish management are going to need to have plenty in reserve to cope with the strong-finishing champions of last season.

Defence coach Les Kiss underlined the point yesterday following the Irish captain’s run when he said: “I don’t think there’ll be any magic trick. We’ll be very focussed on our subs coming on and doing their job. I thought they did a fantastic job last week and certainly upped the ante and finished strongly for us, kept providing platform for us to do something late in the game.”

O’Donnell has no doubts he can hold up his end of the bargain this afternoon. A week on from an impressive Six Nations off the bench against Scotland, he will once again provide back row cover for Peter O’Mahony, Chris Henry and Jamie Heaslip, fully aware of the important role the benchwarmers now play in the modern game, even if there is the risk of being regarded as specialist super-subs.

“You have to be able to cover all the back-row positions and a lot of times lads can fall into that ‘versatile’ role but I’d rather be on the bench than not,” O’Donnell told The Irish Examiner. “Getting up and singing your national anthem knowing you could come on is a lot better than sitting in the stands.”

Across Ireland’s last two Tests, against New Zealand in November and last week’s Six Nations opener with the Scots, O’Donnell has experienced both. It was while he was recovering from knee surgery having hyper-extended the joint during Munster’s league game at Zebre, that the province’s player of the year for last season, along with his best mates from the Clanwilliam club, snapped up some tickets for the All Blacks game.

Ten weeks later, he was in a green jersey on the Aviva pitch, coming off the bench for 15 minutes in the victory over Scotland.

“I sat in the stand for the New Zealand game and on the captain’s run before Scotland I was looking up in the stand trying to find the seat I was in. So it’s just good that everything has worked out well, that the recovery worked out perfectly and form has come back to me. I’ve been blessed with the way it’s happened. But getting to sit in the stands with my friends who I’d started out in rugby with in Clanwilliam, that was a great experience. They’re my oldest and best friends, been best mates with them since I went into secondary school and the next Ireland game I’m on the bench, so it was all good. That was a nice feeling.”

Since recovering from surgery, O’Donnell, 26, has reclaimed the number seven jersey for Munster but not before making quite an impact as a substitute. His first game back for Munster saw him come at the Stade Aimé Giral as the province scrapped with Perpignan in the Heineken Cup. And in the ding-dong final minutes, it was the flanker’s great footwork and soft hands that delivered the final pass for JJ Hanrahan’s epic winning try.

So how do subs hit the ground running and make the impact they’re required to have? And just how easy is to both stay tuned in and focus on your possible role?

“It all comes down to your preparation,” O’Donnell said. “If you’re well prepared going into the game, you know your positions and what you’re covering then you can have that locked away and that’s confidence then. There’s no nervous energy, no worrying whether you know the plays, you just know it and there’s no taking you away from it and then you can sit down and watch the game, see how it’s going, whether holes are opening up with certain moves and look for tendancies. When you’re subbing you have to be ready to go. Somebody could go down in the first minute so you have to be warmed up but you start to build it up after the first half.

“We do a really good warm-up with (IRFU strength and conditioning coach) Jason Cowman so that the subs can hit the ground and the game’s not passing them by. I think all the subs that came in last weekend did impact the game.

“The tempo went up again and that’s the way to have it. It’s a 23-man squad and you have to make an impact. It’s quality of minutes, not amount of minutes.

“In my case, last week against Scotland, I had to slot in at 6 and you have to start thinking of all the 6’s priorities and jobs and lock away the 7’s ones for a while. That’s not a problem for me, I’ve covered the 6 and 7 positions off the bench and started for Munster at 6, 7 and 8 so I’m well able to cover for positions and lineout jumping isn’t a problem to me.”

Having been a member of Declan Kidney’s wider squad during last season’s Six Nations, O’Donnell earned his Test debut on the summer tour to North America, once again coming off the bench in the victory over the USA before a try-scoring first start against Canada a week later. Having missed out through injury in the Guinness Series, O’Donnell is revelling in his Irish return and the opportunity to work under new head coach Joe Schmidt.

“The level of detail that Joe likes, it’s great to be involved with. We’ve had leaders, like Ronan O’Gara was always demanding about being clinical and was last year always pushing me forward. The same with Paul O’Connell, they demand it.

“But when you get to the international stage doing your job right is the difference between a score or losing the game and that’s what Joe wants. He wants the guys that work hard, that make it easier for other guys, and it’s good to see how he works and I’ve learned a lot from it and I’ll definitely takes things back to Munster with me and keep getting better with it. It really helps to be in this environment. I learned a lot from it last year and I’ve learned even more this year.”

O’Donnell will get the chance to put that education to good use much more immediately with an all-Lions back row looming in Welsh jerseys.

“Wales are an incredibly close-knit side. The core of their squad has been there for a few years and they’ve won Grand Slams and championships.

“They’re going to come to the Aviva looking not just for a win but to set down a marker for the Six Nations. We’re going to have to be ready for that and we can’t just match them, we have to go above them in terms of physicality and the bench is going to be hugely important come 60, 65 minutes.

“When you need that injection of pace and physicality the bench have to be able to deliver.”

You get the impression from talking to O’Donnell that he has no worries about meeting those objectives.