Tommy O’Donnell makes a convincing case

Tommy O’Donnell should have been watching the start of the game from the bench.

As a back-row substitute, the Munster forward was preparing to come in to the game as and when required, whether it was the first minute or the last.

The night before, in the team’s Rome hotel, in his mind, he had run through the roles he might play and gone through the pre-game warm-up to his satisfaction, returning down the Stadio Olimpico steps to the dressing room to ready himself for an initial watching brief come kick-off in a few short minutes.