O’Callaghan Happy Enough

Playing in his first full game since the end of last season, Donncha O’Callaghan was pleased enough with the part he played in his side’s 20-18 win over Neath-Swansea Ospreys at The Gnoll on Sunday. Even if it was his first game in almost seven months he saw out the full match and felt better at the end than he did at the beginning.

“From a fitness point of view I was grand really. It was tough enough at the start. You find yourself struggling a bit to get to the pace of the game but once I got my second wind I was ok. It was fairly intense out there but that was no surprise. We knew they were going to put it up to us and from the word go they were in our faces. But that’s something we’re well used to now.”

” Once again the support was just brilliant. The place was a mass of red and however they managed it around the tunnel into the dresssing rooms there was nothing but Munster supporters. We got a great roar from them when we went in just before the kick off and again when we took the pitch. It really is a great boost to us. Like this is The Gnoll and we’re expecting to be drowned out of it but instead when you look up you see hoardes of red. It’s brilliant”.

” I think I gave away a few penalties at the start. Not a great thing to be doing especially with your man Henson around but I think I’d put it down to the first game and being a little over anxious. Mind you I thought the one for the high tackle was a bit harsh. I mean he’s only a litle fella and he semmed to duck as I went to tackle him, I certainly didn’t mean to catch him high. But it took us from being in a good position to being bashed back down the field.”

“All in all I was happy enough with my peformance. Got great support from the rest of the lads. It was tough and in the end we had to be disciplined. We knew that if we made one mistake Henson would do us. So in those last minutes we needed to be really focussed. Quinny did really well when he came on and overall I think we deserved our win.”