Jack O’Donoghue looks to add weight to Munster claims

A number of players facing uphill – some would say impossible – tasks in forcing their way into the Munster team on the biggest days played influential parts in last week’s impressive victory over Ulster in Belfast.

Duncan Williams, who usually plays second fiddle to Connor Murray at number 9, produced his most influential performance to date in the Munster jersey, while Jack O’Donoghue, a young back-row forward trying to establish himself in the most competitive area of the game, was superb at number 8.

Bulk and strength are key elements in the armoury of any aspiring young forward and Waterford native O’Donoghue has been working on building up his 100kg, 22-year-old frame.

“The pre-season was a big one for me,” he says. “I put on 4kgs. Every time you go into the gym, you are trying to lift heavier weights and get stronger as you go. That is always a focus of mine to keep my diet and keep putting on a few pounds. When you are competing with someone like CJ who is 115kgs at times, you need to be just up there trying to compete with him.”

O’Donoghue is also enthusiastic about the influence of defence coach Jacques Nienaber. “I love his game plan and his mindset,” he said. “It is real easy to play with. Like with the stats from the weekend, there are players coming out with 20 tackles, 19 tackles, and they are dominant tackles. Trying to get in, hold players up, it is all about buying time for the defensive system to get set, the line to get set. I am really enjoying the game plan at the moment. Billy Holland is one who has benefited from this, he is top of the PRO12 tackles count and set to play against the All Blacks Saturday.”

So far, so very good for the likes of Holland and O’Donoghue, a versatile pair playing great rugby. O’Donoghue hasn’t always indicated his preferred position in the back-row but now admits “you will take what you get”.

To claim that position on European Cup days would mean taking over from CJ Stander. No easy task and one similar to what Duncan Williams faces with Conor Murray. Williams has become accustomed to having the chance to shine during the international window each season and he certainly came up trumps against Ulster.

“November, February, March, they’re the times when we get a chance to put up our hands and try to get up the pecking order,” he says. “I’m just trying to take whatever opportunity comes my way. Hopefully I did so in Belfast but the main thing is we got the result up there. It was a group performance. Four or five lads came off the bench and had a great impact. There were three or four others who didn’t get on and a few who didn’t travel but they made the week for us in training.

“John Poland is training with the academy and a bit with us and Abrie Griesel, who plays with Young Munster and has been with us for the last couple of weeks ... it’s a case of trying to help them out, keeping them on top of what goes on from week to week, the things we are trying to do defensively and in attack. It’s a group effort so I’m trying to keep them on top for when they are needed.”

Williams is a huge supporter of the new High Performance Centre at UL.

“We see every player, every coach, three or four days a week,” he points out. “Before it was one, maybe two. We were in Cork doing our skill sessions, they were in Limerick doing their skill sessions.

“Now we’re on the pitch here three or four days a week running through things, we can sit down and have a chat about things over a cup of coffee, something maybe we wouldn’t have done before.

“Five or six games into a new coaching structure, there was going to be learning so the last few weeks we’re getting further down the tracks and I think it’s all gelling together nicely now. There may be a big of disruption with a few lads leaving but they were missing last week as well and we managed to bring it together. Now we have lads like Darren O’Shea, John Madigan, Robin Copeland getting a few games. It’s good to have that competition.”