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.

And that is when the 27-year-old’s world turned upside down.

A word from head coach Joe Schmidt, an acknowledgement that starting openside Sean O’Brien had suffered a tweak to his hamstring and the realisation that it was him who would be wearing the Ireland number seven jersey in the Six Nations opener against Italy.

“I didn’t even see it happen myself, as we weren’t gone in at that stage,” O’Donnell said of O’Brien’s injury.

“You’re watching the warm-up and going, ‘Listen, I know the plays, what we’re going through here’.

“Last night I sat down and went through the whole playbook, I ran through it mentally. With games, it’s the nature of it. You could be on in the first minute or you could be on in the 79th minute. You know you have to be ready to add when you do come in.”

Yet switching from substitute to starter at a moment’s nature is a big shift in emphasis and O’Donnell had to think on his feet.

“I would have liked to warm up with a bit more intensity as you don’t want to flay yourself, then go sit on the bench. Also, you didn’t have the nerves. You weren’t building up to the game for the last 48 hours. I knew my role, I knew to just get in there and make an impact.”

Like the rest of the team, O’Donnell was not able to make the instant impact he craved as Ireland got off to what Schmidt described as a “scratchy start” but the Munster flanker was putting in the work rate required of his role, hitting the right breakdowns and leading the Irish tackle count with 17.

There was also his 66th-minute try, a wonderful effort as he took a pass from substitute fly-half Ian Madigan 35 metres out, spotted a gap and rounded prop Martin Castrogiovanni before slipping out of an Andrea Masi tackle and fending off the attentions of Leonardo Sarto, before streaking towards the posts to put the game out of reach.

It was a performance that earned the praise of Ireland captain and provincial pack-mate Paul O’Connell, who said: “Tommy’s stats all year have been incredible. Sometimes powerful guys find it hard to combine power with fitness. He’s one of those rare guys who has both of them. He’s had a great season.

“A big part of his thing is how well he prepare so you would have no worries about him coming in at the last minute like that. Delighted to see him scoring that try as he makes those big carries for Munster all the time and it’s great to see him doing it for Ireland.”

With Schmidt saying he was quietly confident O’Brien would be fit to face France next Saturday in Dublin, O’Donnell knows his hopes of keeping the first-choice No. 7 out of the line-up are limited unless he takes his game up a notch.

“There are things I need to improve if I am to regularly play at this level. Keep adding to my ball-carrying, keep that physical edge at the breakdown and the tackle. It’s great there’s such competition. We’re kept guessing a bit.”

O’Donnell has been here before, featuring as a sub in Ireland’s first two Six Nations games last season only to lose his place in the squad for the rest of the campaign to Jordi Murphy, who started at No. 8 in Rome on Saturday.

“I think Joe gave me the chance last year on previous form and I probably didn’t live up to the hype,” O’Donnell admitted. “In fairness I paid for that but I went away and worked hard. I’ve been playing well for Munster and working hard, playing 80 minutes and trying to be an all-round No. 7.

“You have to go away and think about it and think, ‘If I’m not playing well, then I can’t expect to be picked’. That was the root of it. You can’t say I haven’t been playing well this season because I went away and I worked hard. I got back to the basics and it’s good to do that. It’s good to have a stimulus and try to get better, and know that nothing will be given to you. It’s great for the national side knowing nothing will be given to us; we all have to keep working hard.

“If I’ve given (Schmidt) a (selection) headache, fair enough but come Tuesday, you never know what’s going to happen. I hope I put my hand up today. We’ll see how it goes.”