John O'Sullivanhears from the Munster number four
THERE WERE two dozen steps to negotiate to reach the corridor that led to the Munster dressingroom but the way Donncha O'Callaghan felt it might as well have been 200. Clutching the handrail he took one step at a time, literally, dragging a torso stippled by welts and bruises on a journey that might have rendered the rigours of pre-season training a mere bagatelle in comparison.
It offered a graphic insight into the physicality of Munster's Heineken Cup heroics. On the Millennium Stadium pitch O'Callaghan never took a backward step, muscling his way to the front of pods to carry ball time and again, and supplementing this workload with a ferocious tackle count.
Alan Quinlan was a worthy "man of the match" but O'Callaghan would have pushed him close. The Cork Con and Ireland lock had a mighty game, among the best of his career.
Minutes earlier, standing in front of the media, he downplayed the pain he obviously felt, succumbing only to a weary shrug when asked to explain his dishevelled state.
"(I'm) very stiff and sore after that," he offered in obvious understatement. "It was a hugely physical game. To come out on top is incredible. Fellas really dug deep.
"That's not the prettiest of rugby but it's hard graft to 'pick and jam' for as long as we did. It probably would have been easier or smarter to do something else but that's not how we do things.
"It's as physical a game as we have played all year but we knew it was going to be, especially when you play against a calibre of team like that in a competition like this when everything is on the line. We knew it was going to come down to small margins."
There had been mutterings from one or two French players that Munster's style of play in the final throes of the contest just wasn't cricket - or rugby for that matter. O'Callaghan disagreed: "I make no apologies about it. We know it (was ugly) but it was effective for us.
"I think if you ask them they'll feel like a team beat them playing boring and ugly stuff, but we don't care. I have a medal in my arse pocket."
Delving into the specifics of those final minutes O'Callaghan paid tribute to his scrumhalf.
"To be fair to Tomás (O'Leary), he just ran the show. That's the thing; you learn from experience of being in tight games before. You know it from playing in AIL, from schoolboy rugby. We are reared on cup rugby and how to win it out. It might be boring but as I said, who cares?
"Jerry (Flannery) stepped up today as a leader in his actions more so than his talk. He led from the front and dragged guys with him. It was brilliant. There was a great self-belief even when we were standing behind the posts (after the Toulouse try). You just looked around and knew it was the day and we weren't going to lose it. . . I'd think if you are beaten by Munster you could be a bit pissed off because it's not really brains it's more brawn."
O'Callaghan refused to get maudlin about the pre-game significance of the impending departure of Declan Kidney, Jim Williams and Anthony Foley.
"No, it is not (sad); it's great to send them off on the biggest high we can give them. We learned from Northampton (in the 2000 final) that we couldn't get hugely emotional coming into this game. If you ask the lads, we had a meeting the night before that (Northampton) game and probably played the game there and gave it everything.
"You have to distance yourselves from things. All the talk was about going out and winning it. Now it's great because you can send the boys off on a high but it wasn't a motivating factor.
"You look at the calibre of player that we have in our dressingroom and it's wrong for us to have one cup in the bag. Great players, great teams come back year in, year out . . .
"We have to keep coming back. It's where the supporters deserve to be. It's where the team deserves to be. To be remembered among the great teams . . . you have to be there every year."
O'Callaghan's passion seeps through every sentence. Single-minded, team and individual singing from the same sheet in perfect harmony.
