Emotional Donncha O’Callaghan tears himself away

It has been a rollercoaster week for Donncha O’Callaghan. He playing his last game for Munster, visited south Sudan where he witnessed both joy and terror, before tearing himself away from a rugby team he loved with all of his heart to plan a new beginning in a different environment at the age of 36.

Worcester Warriors, new boys of the Premiership, want to stay in the top flight of English club rugby and have head-hunted one of the most experienced players in the world to help achieve that goal.

O’Callaghan admitted yesterday his emotions were “all over the place” in the past week. “My daughter started school, my wife is soon to give birth, I had to take in that my appearance against London Irish last Friday could be my last. Then I went to Sudan (as Irish sporting ambassador to Unicef), saw the delight of one mother who gave birth and watched as her child was inoculated against the scurge of Polio, and the fear of another just 30 metres away as her teenage daughter was suffering a frightening seizure, brought on by malaria.