O’Callaghan Gets It Right

When we spoke to Donncha O’Callaghan ahead of the international we asked him did he think Ireland could beat the Boks. His response then ?

” Of course we can. Why not ? Like we beat Australia here this time two years ago and there was nothing really in it earlier this year when we played South Africa down there. It’s going to be tough no doubt about that. ”

“They are a massive side, better than earlier in the year. I don’t think we will be looking at the game between them and Wales last week and using that as a yardstick. We’ll be thinking of the games we played in the summer and how we felt after them, knowing that we could have done an awful lot better.”

And the Munster lock was proved right, his colleagues stepping up to the plate to record a marvellous win over the Tri-Nations champions. O’Callaghan didn’t get a run on Saturday but is hopeful that an opportunity will present itself soon. “There was a time there towards the end of Saturday’s game when I thought he (Eddie) might put me on but in fairness Paul and Malcolm were playing very well. I hope I might get a run in one of the two games left. It was a great win, great credit to the lads because they really had to work hard for the full 80 or whatever amount of time was played. And then in the closing stages they were just magnificent.”

“I don’t know whether the South Africans thought they’d have it handy or what but the longer the game went on the more certain I was we’d win. The try by Rog was brilliant. Really caught them asleep. And they can whinge all they like about not being ready but like what sort of an excuse is that at this level.? You don’t turn your back. I remeber it happened to us (Munster) a few years back over in Neath. They were given a penalty and we were sure they’d go for goal but Jarvis took a quick tap, scored a try and kicked the conversion. Seven points real sickener.”

“Mind you it didn’t help them either with their coach mouthing off about who would and wouldn’tget on their squad. I mean that was plain silly. It was talked about in the squad and Eddie spoke in the media about how disrespectful it was and there was always going to be a reaction from us. Like you don’t have to give us a cause before a match like that. It’s always been the way. Insult us and we’ll shove it back in yer face. I’d say he’ll be a bit more careful in future with what he says.”

“We knew we should have won at least one of those games last summer and although they were meant to have improved we were well up for this one. It was the first game of the season but we were well pepared and it just goes to show that we can compete with anyone when we set our minds to it.”