This week, Johnny talks about Paul O’Connell’s return from injury, the promising Eoin O’Malley and the news that Connacht rugby is set to get a boost.
It was brilliant to see Paul O’Connell back at the weekend. It was good news for Paul and great news for Muntser. He had a horrendous time out of the game – eight months is a long time. I’ve had long-term injuries myself and it can be frustrating, particularly if there are complications from the operation.
He was probably out a bit longer than he thought as a result. Sometimes you think you’re not too bad with groin injuries but, with the nature of them, you lose velocity to your movement in terms of speed. Fair play to him coming back though the last day, he won a lineout and did well. He’s a world class player and he wouldn’t come back if he wasn’t on top of his game. There are only a few players in the world like him that can do that.
Carbon copies
Brian O’Driscoll is one of those rare few. He’ll be back from injury and I’d imagine he’d be starting for Leinster against Clermont in the Heineken Cup this weekend. I saw Eoin O’Malley do very well for them at the weekend. I’ve watched him for a good few years now and I played against in him before we went on tour. He’s a super player. He’s similar to Gordon D’Arcy – small feet, very fast and knows how to make space.
They all seem to be carbon copies up there. Size isn’t that important these days, it’s all about moving the ball around now. Obviously the two lads at the centre of that partnership will come to end at some stage and O’Malley and Fergus McFadden are there to come in. Leinster should come through on top away to Clermont.
It’s a massive game for Munster against the Ospreys on Sunday. They’re two good teams. It’s funny, they always seem to be drawn together in the Heineken Cup. Munster are the form team at the moment, they’re playing fantastically well. The Ospreys have the calibre to do something but it doesn’t always work out them. Munster are a bit of a bogey team for them.
Harlequins challenge
Obviously we didn’t play at the weekend because of the weather and no, I couldn’t tell you what I was up to over the weekend. We couldn’t train on the pitch but we did some work on the artificial turf. We didn’t get to do too much phase play but we’ll get back to that soon.
We’re heading to London to play Harlequins on Sunday in the Amlin Cup and we’ll be up against it. We lost to them preseason but we didn’t really give a good account of ourselves. We were off a bit in our defence that day but you expect that in preseason. We were just finding out where we were at. They play a very high tempo game, they’ve a strong squad with good coaching staff. It’s great to go over there and test yourself. It’s on Sky Sports and we’re all looking forward to it. Everyone is prepared for it.
There’s no use in amazingly talented young guys coming down who can’t produce.
There was good news for Connacht rugby last week with new structures announced. The IRFU are giving a lot of support and the plan for young players to come down to Galway to pay with us is welcomed by the lads. Quality is always welcomed to Connacht and obviously we’ve a small squad so any improvement is a plus. As long as these guys can produce, that’s the main thing. There’s no use in amazingly talented young guys coming down who can’t produce. We don’t want to be a young team all of a sudden, there’s a lot of experience here already, but it will be a fantastic opportunity for young players to get game time. And we get a chance to build our squad.
The Professional Games Board will be a major help as well. I think Galway needs something and if we can get a successful sports team here it would be huge. I think we can produce something now that we have more support on board and it should make an impact. There are some really good people there behind us.
Maybe we need a few more players. We’ve a small squad and we’re capable of putting out a very good team but sometimes we don’t have that depth other sides have when we start losing players through injury or lads moving on. Some of the young guys have done very well like Dermot Murphy. He found his feet in Edinburgh and played quite well. That makes a difference but there’s a lot of pressure and he’ll adjust to the level with more game time.
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