John O'Sullivan talks to Munster hooker Jerry Flannery who has been hitting the right spots all season for his province and Ireland

The prospect of bone-jarring collisions with the bruisers of the Biarritz pack, set against another seminal moment in the history of Munster rugby, would induce a rabble of butterflies in most mere mortals. Jerry Flannery refuses to be cowed.

It's not that he underestimates the quality of the opposition. He doesn't. It's not that he doesn't understand the enormity of the occasion and its attendant pressures. He does. It's not about bluster, sang froid or cockiness.

The Munster and Ireland hooker is cossetted by the assertion that when you strip away all the peripheral factors from Saturday's Heineken European Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium, it's simply a game of rugby. That's how he'll approach it and in doing so corral his emotions.

"I don't really get nervous. I get nervous about stuff I don't know about. I'm playing rugby long enough. I train every day and play with some of the best players in the world, so I don't really get nervous for matches."

Before anyone suggests they'll be running out of Superman costumes down Limerick way these days, it's not as if he's immune to doubt. It just doesn't manifest itself in rugby circles that often, but definitely appears in other aspects of his life.

"I get nervous if someone in the bar (Flannery's) asks me about something to do with tax or other paperwork like that. I stand there with a puzzled expression. I'd ring the accountant. When the bar opened on the Saturday before the Leinster game I was a bag of nerves.

"If I was playing a match and we're not doing that well, I know I can get up and smash some guy in the tackle and affect it (the game) immediately. On the day of the Leinster game I wouldn't ring my auld fella, I wouldn't ring the (bar) manager. I rang my girlfriend about 9.30pm and she told me it was going well."

Being a professional rugby player who has taken over the running of his father's pub has allowed Flannery a periodic escape route from both vocations. He enjoys the differing demands recalling the words of Steve Aboud when he was in the IRFU Academy who stressed the importance of having interests outside the sport. Flannery laughs: "Otherwise we'd just be a bunch of rugby dopes." It's not only the pub that diverts the Munster hooker off the pitch as he enjoys movies and acting. It's not just lip service he pays to the latter.

Having enlisted, primarily the help of a friend, Francis Ryan, and subsequently some team-mates from club, Shannon and province, he set about making a movie.

"We started messing around and made a little movie, Pa Face an imitation of Scarface. It was brilliant crack. We have the footage buried. It's about two Bolivians that come to Limerick during the Celtic Tiger boom. It is set along the same lines as Scarface. They get involved with some of the local gangs and it spirals out of control from there.

"There were a lot of bloopers. I got a fair few lads from training here involved but a lot of them put pressure on me to keep it quiet. You might see it over the summer when I have time off. But for now it's staying under lock and key. It's been a bit of an epic. It's going for about the last two years.

"Most of the footage is shot around Limerick. Trevor Hogan plays a very good Garda that comes to an unfortunate end. I came up with the idea but Francis Ryan was the catalyst. He's involved with Impact Theatre in Limerick . . . I like the cinema more that DVDs. Ian Dowling (housemate) has a few, Spanish ones. When we were up there during the Six Nations Gordon D'Arcy had a French film but it was a bit too art house for me. The Big Lebowski, Scarface, Easy Rider are my three favourite films."

He has other priorities at present though, starting on Saturday. The hub of a brilliant Munster lineout, he offered the following appraisal of that set-piece from a hooker's perspective. "When you watch lineouts and see them (the opposition) defend you'll see them almost getting a hand up, getting very close to the ball.

"You'll think 'that was kind of a close one'. You can't let yourself be fooled by that. You have to trust that if you get the ball off, the lads will get him (the jumper) up in time and you'll win the ball. You can't start second guessing yourself. If you keep hitting the right spot, keep the darts sweet all the time, then you will win the ball, no matter what they do."

He'll be hoping for a leading role in a different kind of epic come Saturday.