Denis Leamy: Donncha O'Callaghan's Munster criticism was fair

Munster lost to Zebre for the first time in 20 league meetings in a performance that prompted a stinging critique from RTÉ analyst and former Munster player Donncha O’Callaghan

Munster Defence Coach Denis Leamy has defended Donncha O'Callaghan's comments

However accurate Donncha O’Callaghan’s comments were regarding Munster’s dismal defeat at Zebre Parma were, Denis Leamy has insisted the hurt felt inside the provincial camp following their 42-33 Italian ignominy cut much deeper.

Munster's loss to Zebre for the first time in 20 league meetings saw the Italians outscore their more illustrious rivals by six tries to four, courtesy in part to 25 missed tackles and nine turnovers of possession from the visitors at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi last Saturday afternoon.

It was a performance that prompted a stinging critique 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 province’s defence coach offered not a retort but an endorsement of O’Callaghan’s review.

“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 his 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.”

Zebre’s Matteo Nocera tries to break the tackle of Josh Wycherley and Diarmuid Barron

It is their belief in the quality of the squad that kept the Munster management from reading the riot act to their players during Tuesday’s post-match review, as Leamy explained.

“You come in this morning, we didn’t meet yesterday, and you got a real feel for how disappointed the boys are. I’ve been involved with teams over the years who’ve had poor displays and not that people move on but you really get a sense of how much they care and we had a very thorough, honest review. We didn’t break any doors or tear the place asunder but we made factual statements, we showed a lot of pictures in terms of what we can do better and there’s no doubt we can be a lot better.

“We didn’t play well. We didn’t defend well, our breakdown attack wasn’t good enough and there were crucial lineouts at times that we got wrong. It was a very poor Munster performance and we’re very disappointed by that.

“The reality is we’ve got to move on quickly because that’s the world we live in. There’s a huge challenge against Ospreys on what looks to be a very difficult night on Saturday so that becomes the focus and the learnings are huge from last Saturday.” 

Admitting the poor quality of the performance had been a surprise to the coaching group led by head coach Graham Rowntree, Leamy added: “We wouldn’t have expected to play that poorly, no. It was a surprise.

“We always try to be very honest as a group, we have high standards and that wasn’t what we expected.

“We know it wasn’t good enough and the boys know it wasn’t good enough but sometimes in sport things don’t go well. The important thing, really, now is our reaction and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” 

Needless to say Leamy and the rest of the coaching ticket expect a positive response this Saturday against Ospreys at Cork’s Virgin Media Park.

“I hope so. There has to be a response and there will be. The boys, honestly, are the best group of lads I’ve ever worked with, they really are.

“Everything you ask them to do, they do it heart on heart. They go to war for us consistently in tough environments. We’ve won in South Africa consistently, we’ve won URCs, these boys are the best I’ve worked with from a defensive point of view, there’s no doubt in my mind. I trust them so much and I believe they’ll turn up on Saturday.”