Heaslip in the wars as Blues win again
LEINSTER went top of the PRO12 last night but their 22-9 victory at Ospreys came at a cost after Jamie Heaslip left the field a lot worse for wear. Heaslip took a blow to the head after just six minutes, while Luke Fitzgerald also shipped what Leo Cullen described as a ‘stinger’ injury.
TOMMY O’DONNELL won’t flinch when he stands in the tunnel today ready to run out at Stade Jean-Bouin, intent on keeping Munster’s Champions Cup hopes alive.
Any anxieties about getting stuck back in were flushed from his system by his first start of the provincial season in Belfast last Saturday, but his December 27 injury comeback off the bench in Limerick was a very different experience.
He had mixed emotions that evening against Leinster, sitting in the Thomond Park dug-out not knowing how he’d react to finally playing 141 days after his World Cup hopes were dashed in Cardiff.
‘I’d known for about six weeks that was the game we were targeting. I’d been preparing mentally but while I was very confident going into the game, all of a sudden after the warm-up and you’re sitting on the sideline those nerves do build-up.’
He needn’t have worried. ‘I was waiting for my shout and within a couple of seconds of getting on I got a good carry and was just into the game then. It was just great to be back. I was laughing every now and then, saying I should have held off another two weeks and enjoyed Christmas, but it was better to be back around the lads making impact.’
His contribution seven days ago at Ravenhill helped Munster halt their fivematch losing streak. Now they have travelled to France surrounded by pessimism that defeat will eliminate them at the Champions Cup pool stages for the second successive season, but O’Donnell is convinced toppling Stade Francais in their back yard is very much mission possible.
‘We are not gone yet,’ he insisted. ‘We might have lost a string of games but they were in two separate competitions and we’re very much still alive in both. It’s not all doom and gloom. We can go out and do the business.
‘The numbers can still very much add up. We have gotten through before (after) losing two games in a pool. What fans are probably not used to seeing is us losing two back-to-back, but we’re still in it and it’s a great chance to go after Stade and get a win.
‘France isn’t an easy place to go, especially as this is a very unusual situation. You have already had your back-to-back games (against Leicester) and now you’re dealing with another back-to-back. But it’s Europe and we’re still in it with a good shot to prove ourselves.’
While far from perfect, beating Ulster has left Munster personnel looking each other in the eye again after their miserable December. ‘It’s great be able to walk into a dressing room and smile. It was great to head down that road [the M1] with a bit of positivity, a bounce in your step looking forward.
‘Getting our detail nailed down would have been a little bit harder this week if we had lost. Lads would have been facing another week of it [talk about their losing streak] and there wouldn’t be the same optimism, but we got a bit of luck and it’s just great to see the work rewarded. Great to be on the front foot again.’
Great, too, to have the appetising prospect of witnessing O’Donnell and co going all out against the likes of Sergio Parisse in the collision zone. Especially after suffering the dislocated hip which left the flanker crumpled in pain at Millennium Stadium on August 8, the 28year-old Tipperary man’s World Cup dream cruelly snatched away.
He’d never experienced pain like it, but it turns out his road back to rude health wasn’t as complicated or as torturous as it first appeared, once he finally managed to get himself home by boat to Rosslare. He decided it would be a more comfortable than putting his injury through the trip by air.
‘When I woke up from the anaesthetic, I was cursing and swearing, a bit grouchy from the pain, but you could feel it [the hip] was good, feel it was sitting back in. There were a lots of bumps and bruises around it but for the few days after that it was more the affects from first game of pre-season – my neck, shoulders and chest were nearly sorer than my hip.
‘I was soon even able to go for a shower on my own unassisted. If you had badly broken your leg it would have been more restrictive. We have a beef farm at home in Tipperary and I was out walking it with my crutches within a few days, going round in the jeep with my father. I wasn’t fit for holding anything, holding a line or a fence wire, but I could stand in a gap and I didn’t want to be sitting on the couch the whole time.’
It was a fortnight before he got himself back over to Limerick, a full six weeks before he was at the university on a late September Thursday to take the initial small recuperative steps that now have him travelling at full pelt again.
‘I’m not going to lie, it [my habits] slipped a little bit. I enjoyed the home cooking, enjoyed building up a bit of guilt. I let myself go for about two weeks where I didn’t have the real (rehab) detail but then I just started to reel it in slowly and when I got to the sixweek mark it was back to normal.
‘You were back in your house, back in your daily schedule with your cooking and everything, so you fell back into the good habits, and I was also back driving once cleared by the surgeon… I didn’t burn myself out too early and when it came to starting rehab I was fresh. It was like coming back after a summer holiday, you were ready to go.’
Last Sunday brought a reminder as to what is at stake now he is back, O’Donnell taking part in Ireland’s one-day training camp. He hopes the January novelty of three European games on successive weekends will have Munster personnel demanding Six Nations inclusion.
‘It’s a test but it’s a great opportunity for Munster and Ulster, who are in the same position, to put up hands for international selection, especially if this weekend goes well and you stay in contention. It’s cup final stuff.’