'You need a thick skin' — Leamy has no complaints with stinging O'Callaghan criticism

'When Donncha O’Callaghan says something like that you have to take it on board,' says Munster defence coach after former teammate slammed 'totally unacceptable' defeat to Zebre

Tue, 01 Oct, 2024 - 17:53

Simon Lewis

Denis Leamy says he can find no fault with the stinging criticism of Munster’s poor performance from former team-mate Donncha O’Callaghan following a dismal loss at Zebre Parma last Saturday.

Munster lost to their Italian rivals for the first time in 20 league meetings in a humiliating 41-33 URC defeat in Parma as Zebre outscored their more illustrious rivals by six tries to four, courtesy in part to 25 missed tackles and nine turnovers of possession from the Irish province.

It prompted a verbal attack from RTÉ analyst O’Callaghan in his post-match comments, the former Munster and Ireland lock saying: "The amount of individual sloppy mistakes was just totally unacceptable. Munster will look back on that and they should be embarrassed with that performance."

Asked on Tuesday about the words from his fellow former forward as Munster began preparations for this Saturday’s URC round-three clash with Ospreys in Cork, the defence coach could not help but agree.

“Yeah, you need a thick skin,” Leamy said. “When I moved to Cork in 2000, a raw 18-year-old, I met Donncha and became hugely friendly with him. Donncha O’Callaghan means a lot to me personally and means a lot to the group and when Donncha O’Callaghan says something like that you have to take it on board.

“When someone said to me Donncha had said something – I specifically don’t read papers or match media but I wanted to hear what Donncha had said. I heard what he said and he’s comments were very fair. He didn’t say anything that we hadn’t said, that the boys didn’t say.

“They respect Donncha for those comments and you can’t say that they’re wrong. I think the boys, the hurt is not from what Donncha said, the hurt within the group is knowing that we can be so much better. We’ve shown it in big games over the last few years. Yes, there was different players involved, there’s new players coming in, there’s players coming in from the AIL but the mindset and the performance shouldn’t change. And we trust the players to say (to them), ‘look, it’s happened, we have to deal with a little bit of hurt, the criticism that comes is always going to come with it, it is Munster here’.

“We expect and we hold ourselves at the highest standards so anything that comes with a poor performance is expected and we wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Munster will be down to the bare bones in their back three this Saturday as they bid to bounce back from the embarrassing defeat with a home visit from Ospreys in Cork.

Graham Rowntree’s side did return from Italy with a try bonus point to add to the five they collected in their round-one opener at home to Connacht but following an extra day off to lick their wounds on Monday, there was more bad news with a lengthy injury list from the weekend.

New signing Thaakir Abrahams (leg) and Shane Daly (elbow) will be both be unavailable to face the Welsh region at Virgin Media Park following injuries in northern Italy which will see both players going for scans to determine the extent of their problems.

Fellow back-three players Patrick Campbell (shoulder), Liam Coombes (leg) and Diarmuid Kilgallen (leg) have also been ruled out and with Ben O’Connor set to play for Emerging Ireland at full-back on Wednesday against The Pumas in Bloemfontein, South Africa, that leaves just three fit and available back-three specialists, Mike Haley, Calvin Nash and academy wing Shay McCarthy.

While Munster are expected to welcome back a trio senior internationals for the first time this season at the weekend in the form of club captain Tadhg Beirne and fellow forward Peter O’Mahony as well as fly-half Jack Crowley, further injury issues remain.

Back-rower Ruadhan Quinn has been ruled out having failed a Head Injury Assessment against Zebre while fly-half Billy Burns continues to remain unavailable following a shoulder injury sustained on debut against Connacht.

There is optimism, however, that centre Alex Nankivell could be set for a return having missed the trip to Parma.

"Alex has a shoulder injury,” assistant coach Leamy said. “We're just seeing how he's going and we'll make a decision later in the week. We're very hopeful that he'll be fit. He'd be a really nice addition so we're very hopeful.”

Burns, meanwhile had been considered touch and go for selection last weekend but has now been ruled out for a further round, though Leamy said he believed the initial injury had not become a deeper problem.

"I don't believe there is," he insisted. "He's just not fit for this weekend but we're very hopeful that he'll be back in the next few weeks. I don't believe there's a deeper problem, not that I'm aware of anyway.”

There was more concerning news around lock Tom Ahern’s potential seasonal debut. Ahern injured a shoulder in the final game of the regular season last June against Ulster on June 1 and had been expected back at the start of this new campaign.

“Unfortunately, Tom’s rehab and recovery has slowed a little bit,” Leamy revealed. “I’m not quite sure if he’s had a setback but it just slowed down a little bit. We’re still waiting for him to be fully available so we’re watching that space but fingers crossed it’s soon.”