Jerry Flannery: ‘We’ve just got to bring it out of them’

As a player who lived through the nightmare of Ireland’s 2007 World Cup campaign, Jerry Flannery knows all about dark days and being the centre of attention during the experience.

It has not become any easier to deal with now he is starting out as a coach. The pain of Munster’s losing run and exit from the Champions Cup in humiliating fashion at the hands of Stade Francais has sent the 37-year-old scrum coach and his fellow coaches back under the spotlight. Flannery understands that, accepts it comes with the territory and believes it can actually be empowering for players and management alike.

“The thing about this job, playing or coaching Munster, people talk about it being a goldfish bowl but I think that’s a good thing,” Flannery told the Irish Examiner this week. “There’s no real clocking off and the only people that really aren’t into that are not 100% in the job, whether it’s people who are not training or living their life as well as they should do.