Of all the Irish players on the outside looking in during the Six Nations, Simon Zebo surely has the biggest fan club.
Accordingly, the exclusion of a player with an undoubted X -factor made him the nearest thing there was to a cause celebre , but he’s come through it all as the same old Zeebs.
Smiling and chilled, this Cork-born son of a West Indian Frenchman has always marched to a different beat and he laughed off suggestions that his fall from a year ago might have prompted him to seek out a sports psychologist's help.
Dark moments
"There's never been too many dark moments, to be honest. . . I never really let myself get that way. You gotta take things in perspective too. There's a lot of people who are in worse off situations than we are, to be moaning and giving out about not getting picked on a certain team.
“There are a lot worse problems out there in the big bad world. So I don’t let myself get too down about it. As long as I’m playing for some team, Munster or Ireland or whoever, I just try to play with a smile on my face. That’s why I started playing.”
Saturday night’s sell-out Rabo Pro12 summit meeting with Leinster at the Aviva, is the first of potentially many games for Zebo and other excluded Munstermen to showcase their talents in advance of the summer tour to Argentina.
Yet when asked if he was desperate to make the summer tour Zebo replied : "I'm desperate at the moment to win trophies with Munster. My performances on the back of playing well for Munster will lead to me hopefully getting on the plane to Argentina . . . . We just need to win this weekend, win the following weekend, and get some massive momentum going into the back end of the season. It'll be great for the club and that will lead to more players being selected on the national side."
Any expectations
Zebo accepts he needed more game time prior to the Six Nations after a second serious foot injury in successive seasons.
“I didn’t have any expectations to be playing straight away in the Six Nations or anything like that.”
“I can’t really have too many complaints really because the boys, Dave (Kearney) and Andrew (Trimble), have been going so well for the nearly four months that I’ve been out.
“I’m delighted for their success and happy for my friends, on the other side obviously you kinda want to be a part of that.”
Zebo was adamant Joe Schmidt had never communicated his displeasure over the winger's trademark celebratory 'Z' sign. "Joe likes to have fun just as much as anyone else on the training park."
More pertinently Schmidt demands huge work-rate, notably at ruck time, and defensive reliability from his wingers – not exactly Zebo virtues.
The coach has spoken to Zebo who freely admits he needs to improve his work around the breakdown.
“I’d be the first to say I can be inefficient there and sometimes don’t do too much at the breakdown . . . I’m not a Donncha O’Callaghan or a Paul O’Connell. I don’t hit as many rucks as they do. But when the ball does go wide, I need to be just as efficient as they are in securing ball . . . going forward I’d have no issues and I’d back myself every time. But there are definitely little parts I can iron out so at the back end I can be a better player.”
There would be no better stage to show some evidence of this improvement than this Saturday, and the occasion should be to his liking. “I love the atmosphere and what the crowd brings to these occasions. If you didn’t enjoy these gigs, then you’re probably a bit of a robot. It’s going to be special.”
