‘I’m a really selfish person. Rugby has made me like that

His Munster career goes back to the 90s, 244 games ago. But patronise Donncha O’Callaghan about being a great servant at your peril. He wants game time. Like tomorrow in Marseille. Munster’s lifer lock opens up on friends and family.

Tomorrow, David takes on Goliath. The big-spending continentals against an Irish province. Donncha O’Callaghan has been around long enough to remember a time when simply facing foreign opponents in famous jerseys could poke at Munster confidence.

“When we played Wasps in Lansdowne Road in the 2004 Heineken Cup, I remember being at a line-out late on and one of their fitness staff came over to Simon Shaw with a little orange drink, saying, ‘get that into you for the last ten minutes’.