In this week’s column, Johnny talks about a tough defeat to Leinster and takes the opportunity to take teammate Jamie Hagan down a peg or two.
Â
It was a real sickener not to take anything away from the game with Leinster at the weekend; like any derby it was a really tough game. I suppose we kept pushing to try and get a win, maybe we should have taken our medicine and just kicked the ball out and taken a point, but you know, lesson learned. We went through a couple of phases and it didn’t work out for us and it was unfortunate, but at least we were still trying to win the game and we had the belief that we could do it, so it was unfortunate how it happened, but as I said, lesson learned.
Every game we’ve played this season, we’ve had that belief that we could win it and Saturday was no different. It wasn’t a high-scoring game and we got caught out a couple of times – for Leinster’s first try they were pretty clever and took a few of our guys out at the back of the lineout. That’s the sort of thing that you learn yourself and try and take it into your own game, but even still, apart from that try at the end it was only a five point game and it could have gone either way.
War of attrition
Towards the end it was disappointing, I thought some of the scrum decisions could have went our way but in fairness, Leinster had a lot of possession and we were living off scraps for a lot of the game. Like last week, it was a very physical game; we defended a lot, we made over 200 tackles. When you got the ball you were getting hit quite hard, I got a belt myself and there was spilling blood from my face (see picture above), but it was only a gash, it looked a lot worse than it actually was.
He (Jamie Hagan) is a greasy man in fairness; nobody wants to sit beside him in the dressing room. There’s a bit of a stench off him, his hygiene wouldn’t be the best.
Fair play to both sides though, the quality of the defending was a testament to the work rate of both sides and to be able to defend like that for 80 minutes is a massive credit to both ourselves and Leinster. It’s not easy to keep putting yourself through that type of game and having the right attitude is the most important thing. The day of slow ball at the ruck is gone, but to be fair it’s better, the game is a lot quicker. There are no massive turnover counts anymore; the game has changed and you have to adapt to it. For the likes of myself, it’s difficult because the day of the groundhog is gone to an extent; certainly you won’t be stealing ball at the ruck but at the same time, you try and make it difficult for the opposition.
The Italian Job
I had a chat with a few of the Leinster boys after the game. Fair play to them, they gave us a few tips on how to play against Treviso next week. They told us what to expect; it’s going to be another tough game but that’s what you want. You just don’t have time to switch off at the moment, the quality of the league is just getting better and better and Treviso will definitely be waiting for us, especially considering that they made a lot of changes for the Munster game at the weekend.
Munster put out a strong side against them; they knew it was going to be tough. Treviso seem to be targeting their home games and that’s fair enough. Not many teams go to Thomond Park and win so you can understand where they’re coming from. But we’ll be ready for Treviso, we’ve had a far lighter load this week, we’re not out on the pitch as much so we’ll be fresh and ready to go for Saturday.
Jamie Hagan
I couldn’t finish this week’s column without getting in a dig at a colleague of mine – Jamie Hagan. Hago is a young guy who’s doing well for himself and he seems to be attracting a few headlines for himself lately and getting a bit of attention in the papers. He’s taken to trying to slag lads off in the papers and stuff like that so a bit of a coup has formed against him in the dressing room as a result. He decided to announce Brett Wilkinson’s one-year relationship with a Galway girl in the Irish Independent last week in an interview with Hugh Farrelly so some of the lads have got it in for him.
Jamie Hagan: ‘The Beast from the East’
So anyway, we had been calling him ‘the beast from the east’, but he’s been around this part of the world for a while and he’s pretty annoying, so some of the lads have taken to calling him ‘the pest from the west’. Jamie’s ambition to be in the spotlight hasn’t stopped with the papers I’m afraid; he’s looking to get a documentary on TG4 for himself. He just wants them to follow him around for a while; he thinks that it would make great television. I don’t know why though because he’s a greasy man in fairness; nobody wants to sit beside him in the dressing room. There’s a bit of a stench off him, his hygiene wouldn’t be the best.
Andrew Browne, Aidan Wynne and Shane Monahan are unfortunate enough to have to live with him and as far as I can gather they’re pretty keen on getting out of the terms of their lease, but I think they’re tied down for another year or so, I’m afraid. I think there’s an animal farm out in Loughrea though that is willing to take him so maybe we could ship him out there for a while!
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
