A strange kind of homecoming for Jerry Flannery

Now a Harlequins employee, tomorrow offers a chance to be somewhere a little more familiar

Sat, 12 Dec, 2020 - 07:05

Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh

Jerry Flannery's wife Katy, looked at her husband with a puzzled face.

“Why are you playing the Wolfe Tones in the car?” she asked, “you don't listen to this at home.”

Such is the life of the Irishman overseas. Now a Harlequins employee, after five years at Munster, the former Ireland hooker is still adjusting to raising a family in England.

“I'm getting the kids books like 'mo céad focal', and they were in full Irish kits when we went for a walk with the missus.”

Tomorrow offers a chance to be somewhere a little more familiar. The first game of this season's Heineken Champions Cup would, naturally, bring Flannery back 'home' to Munster.

Just as Ronan O'Gara, Simon Zebo and Donnacha Ryan returned with Racing, rugby has a funny way of making these reunions happen.

“The rugby world's a small world, but sure it's an exciting opportunity for us at Quins,” Flannery said.

“It's funny when you are now outside of the bubble, you see things from other people's perspectives. They're always asking about Munster, and you kind of only then realise that Munster have been in a few big semi finals recently...they're still near the top of European teams. They've recruited heavily in the last year, with Damien De Allende and RG Snyman coming in, but of course he's been injured which was disappointing for the lads. It's a real good test for us, and well, it's an opportunity to get back home.”

Having already coached at Munster, Flannery doesn't face the same persistent questions O'Gara does about coming home on a permanent basis, but even still, he's adamant that there is no point in trying to predict where anyone will end up.

“You can't make plans...no one knows what's happening,” he said. “Hopefully this [Covid] cloud moves on now, but you still just don't know where you'll be, particularly in coaching.

“I was speaking to ROG recently, and I said that's 'some journey' he's been on. From Munster to Racing, to Crusaders and now La Rochelle...it's really impressive. But none of that was planned, so much is out of your control, a lot of it all is luck and opportunity.”

Flannery has kept an eye on Munster and Ireland since moving across the Irish Sea, and name checks Gavin Coombes, Shane Daly, Craig Casey and Jack O'Sullivan as ones to watch. But as a former hooker, it's a Leinster player who has caught the eye in recent times, as Rónan Kelleher steps in to Flannery's old No 2 shirt at international level.

“I watched him coming through the age grade rugby, and always thought he was a really good player,” he said.

“He's still maybe a little green as a hooker, there's still quite a bit to go, but he's lucky in that he's playing in such a good Leinster side. He's playing in a better team where he'll make fewer errors. He'll keep getting better, and keeping the error rate low with Ireland will be key.

“He's a fast twitch player, he's very dynamic and he wouldn't be starting for Leinster if he didn't have a work ethic.”

This has been a year for new faces both provincially but Johnny Sexton remains a central talking point in Irish rugby.

Criticised for his reaction when leaving the pitch against France, questions remain over his suitability for the captain's role, but Flannery is not convinced there's a debate to be held.

“I don't think there's anything different with Johnny when he's captain, it's just a nice narrative, isn't it?” he said. “He looked like he was irritated after the France game, but if he wasn't captain, he'd be like that too. He was made captain because of how he is. Some players need to take a more global view of game when they're captain, for example a second row would need to run the lineouts and keep an eye on how we're doing out the back, but as a 10 you need to know that anyhow, so that's nothing new for Johnny.”