DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN
Munster icon opens up on longevity, life in the media and lockdown
DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN used to joke about doing Panto back in Cork after he retired. He’s got plenty of irons in the fire these days.
It’s been two years since the Corkman hung up his boots.
A career that began with Munster against the Border Reivers in August 1998 finished 506 professional games and 20 years later with Worcester (main), when he ran out for his final club in a Premiership clash with Harlequins.
There were two unforgettable Heineken Cup triumphs with Munster, a Grand Slam with Ireland and a few Lions tours in between all that as well.
Not that things have slowed down since he left rugby. The past two years have been manic. There have been plenty of TV gigs, including punditry for Pro14 games on Eir Sport, presenting a kids show called
Donncha’s Two Talented and being a coach on Ireland’s Fittest Family, to name a few. There was also a memorable appearance on The Tommy Tiernan Show.
But the big gig arrived back in September when O’Callaghan joined the line-up for RTÉ 2FM’s Game On along with former champion jockey Ruby Walsh and sports journalist Marie Crowe.
FINDING HIS VOICE
‘I’m loving the radio stuff,’ he says.
‘They’ve been unbelievable to give me that opportunity. I know people would bite their hand off for it. They’re backing me a bit.
‘The closest I’ve come to a team environment is in with 2FM – I swear to God. I love it. I love the mindset. Everyone’s kind of got each other’s back in there.
‘Dan Healy (the head of 2FM)… I know It sounds a bit kiss-assey when you mention that your boss is a good guy… he’s across stuff. I remember just little small things. He ripped me to pieces for not being able to drive the desk. He was there, “you need to know the desk”, being really tough on me and then 20 minutes later I’d just finished being on radio for three hours straight and I remember he was there with nearly everyone from 2FM clapping me out. I was buzzing.
‘I love that kind of environment where you can give it to someone between the eyes because you want to be better but you also acknowledge the good work when it’s shown, you know?’
It sounds a bit like the culture at Munster during the glory days?
‘It’s just good environments as well, though,’ O’Callaghan answers. When you’ve been around a few that are poor, you know what works.
‘Honestly, I probably didn’t respect it at the time but that was Declan Kidney’s point of difference. Deccie gave a s***. Deccie cared and when you’re around people that actually genuinely care about you and want you to do well and want you to get better – that’s a great thing.
‘It was David Wallace or Peter Stringer or Denis Leamy telling me, “you can’t miss a tackle on your inside shoulder man… it leaves us all exposed”.
‘I love that kind of environment.’ Having spent years in front of dictaphones and microphones as a professional rugby player, O’Callaghan is now the one asking the questions. Funny, affable and laid-back, he was made for this industry – but it has been a steep learning curve.
‘I swear to God, I’m nowhere near to figuring it out yet,’ he admits.
‘I’m learning constantly and one of the things I was trying to nearly be a reporter and getting that side of it wrong. You try to be someone you’re not.
‘So, I’m still trying to find my way in it but I swear I’m getting unbelievable coaching just for stuff that I wouldn’t have thought about.
‘I was the one listening into things like The Late Late Show or Ray D’Arcy and I’d be thinking, “for f **** sake, look how handy this is”.
‘And then you realise how tough it is to actually actively listen, to know when to outro to a break, have someone talking in your ear, calculate the time of it’s going over.
‘It’s actively, actively listening. Really engaging. Not just looking ahead to see what’s the next question. Where’s the chat actually going and have you teed it up well enough to go that way?
‘That’s it and to kind of go with it.
It’s mad when you’ve written out 10 questions then you know that this statement or comment is actually going to bring you away from the rest of them so you’re flying naked!
‘It’s about having the balls to go with it a bit, isn’t it? It’s a better chat. I’m so grateful for the opportunity and I actually feel I’m learning so much. I know my personality that I have to be around those kind of environments that if it’s not progressive, if I’m not learning, if I’m not being challenged, I’d go mad.
‘I listen to the radio now and you should hear me. I know this is crazy but I’m listening to the likes of Sean O’Rourke or Jennifer Zamparelli, how she ramps into a break and I’m there thinking: “f ******* brilliant, did you hear that?. Tracy Clifford, what a pivot into that break… brilliant!”
THE NEW NORMAL
YOU need to be ‘selfish’ to make it the top level, O’Callaghan maintains. It’s why he was able to play until age 39. The former Munster and Ireland lock was relentlessly professional in his approach. Rarely injured, his 268 appearances for Munster – a record at the province – and his 94 Ireland caps are testament to that work ethic and drive.
He probably could have emulated the great Kiwi lock Brad Thorn and kept togging out into his 40s, but it was time to prioritise different things in life.
‘My wife slags me over it, but I remember having my own breakfast before I’d give the kids theirs,’ he recalls.
‘They were just looking at me but in my head, it’s so irrational looking back it – “I have fitness and conditioning at 9am. If I don’t eat now, I’m going to perform like a bag of s **** . It’s a brutal way to think, isn’t it?’
Lockdown life is pretty hectic in the O’Callaghan household with four kids – Sophie, Robin, Anna and Jake – keeping him and his wife Jenny on their toes.
‘She’s having a stormer. School goes on, it’s mad. You do get an appreciation for people.
‘You’d nearly hug teachers and people like that. I honestly thought “aren’t they lucky now minding them?” and they get their grand long holiday every summer. Now you’re thinking “you’ve earned every one of them”.’
Like everyone, he’s adjusting to the new normal as well as eagerly awaiting the day when rugby returns to our fields and TV screens again.
‘I badly miss sport of any description, do you know what I mean?
‘Whatever about playing it, people need it to vent a bit, too. You actually need to shout at the telly every now and again.
‘You know the way they’re playing all the old games on Eir Sport? I was watching some of the games back when I’m giving away penalties and I’m shouting at myself, saying “what the f*** are you at man?”.
‘I look at some of them but I think, ‘who’s that pscyho?’ What you wouldn’t give for a day like that now? They’re even good to watch back. Imagine having a real one.’
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
O’CALLAGHAN was Munster through and through. He was a major part of a pack which was feared throughout Europe for the best part of a decade. Claw, Gallaimh and Axle would make way for the likes of Flannery, O’Connell and Leamy but that gnarly edge always remained.
He was virtually ever-present during the province’s quest for the European Cup – dubbed the ‘Holy Grail’ – after years of near misses. He was there for all the bad days: Twickenham in 2001, John O’Neill’s disallowed try in Lille, the ‘hand of Back’ in 2002. Gut-wrenching semifinal losses at the hands of Toulouse and Wasps would follow before the hex was finally lifted on that fateful day against Biarritz at Millennium Stadium.
O’Callaghan still recalls the rallying cry from John Kelly on the morning of the game.
‘We were staying in the Vale of Glamorgan before that final in 2006 and I remember he just said it before we left: “We’re winning this today, lads”.
‘We nearly had the game won before we got on the bus. I know that sounds mad but just jumping on the bus. I was thinking, “we’re winning today, John called it”.
‘He said: ‘It ends today. The journeyman s***, it stops now. We fix this”.’
Kelly remains brutally honest. O’Callaghan was trying to get rid of his Christmas tree a few months ago so he took a spin into town. They say if you can master the streets of Cork then you can drive anywhere in the world. But O’Callaghan on this occasion lost his bearings and ended up going down a one-way street, much to the annoyance of the locals. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice amidst all the commotion.
‘There was a jam on a horn and there’s John Kelly out the window just going: ‘Haha, you f ****** eejit!’
The squad still stay in touch. There’s a WhatsApp group. A most exclusive club. ‘Hard earned’ membership as O’Callaghan puts it.
‘Everyone’s kind of busy but if you ever needed any of them, they’re all there.
‘When David Wallace got a promotion, someone put up “go on Wally, ya beaut”.’
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
EVERY Munster squad since those heady days of 2006-08 has felt the weight of history.
The 2011 Celtic League title is the last piece of silverware that has adorned the trophy cabinet within the walls of Thomond Park. It’s been 12 years since Munster reached a European Cup final. Before Covid19 struck, Munster’s race in the tournament was already run, crashing out at the pool stages.
‘When you’re in it, you have to say, every game is so, so big but I promise you, it’s all about Europe,’ says O’Callaghan.
‘I know it was a tough pool but you don’t want to ring bells for excuses.
‘I love what’s coming through. You look at the Craig Caseys and these guys but I have a fear that sometimes we don’t just throw them in. I remember it myself. If you get exposed to environments and training is one thing but putting them in on bigger days.
‘I know this sounds a bit ruthless but you either sink or swim. I remember I played in Lille (against Stade Francais at blindside flanker in 2001) and I had a nightmare and that game cost me 18 months.
‘In the new game, that’s game over for them because there’s so much competition for places but you have to honestly stress-test guys. How do you know they’re at the level if you don’t give them much time?
‘I think there’s a brilliant group and I’d like to see them crack on as well. Although I do like slagging them when you see the High-Performance Centre, it’s class.
‘They have the best of everything and you then remember back to eating tupperware out of the back of the boot.
‘You’re there, “lads, if we had this, we would have won all around us!”’
There is much excitement about the likes of Casey, Shane Daly, Jack Crowley and Thomas Ahern. It is arguably Munster’s most promising generation since O’Callaghan and his fellow tyros burst onto the scene many years ago. The arrivals of the World Cup-winning Springboks Damian de Allende and RG Snyman is further cause for optimism as well as a settled and inventive coaching team.
What Munster need most, O’Callaghan feels, is not tangible but it defined the province in the good times.
‘Culture is the most important thing.
‘I remember there was a time when we were training in Cork and we didn’t have 27kg dumb bells. So if you were trying to make the jump up, you had to go straight to something like 35kg. I know that sounds small. Then there’s an appreciation for stuff, isn’t there?
‘When we moved into a better place in CIT. If someone drops a 27kg dumb bell, it wasn’t just the S&C lads going “go handy on the weights” we were there, “what the f*** are you at man?. We’ve waited nearly three years to get a 27kg dumb bell and you’re throwing it down!”
‘It’s that appreciation that it’s hard earned.’
O’Callaghan knows all about that.
‘DECLAN KIDNEY REALLY CARED AS A COACH
AND WHEN YOU ARE AROUND PEOPLE WHO GENUINELY
CARE – IT’S A GREAT THING’