REDDAN’S WILLING AND ABLE

Scrum-half believes he is making a difference even in the autumn of his career

When you’ve a family and you are away you don’t want to feel that your time is being wasted

MENTIONING the word ‘Georgia’ around Irish rugby veterans of a certain age sends them in search of wood to touch. The name summons rotten memories and causes survivors of the 2007 World Cup to tighten in apprehension. ‘Georgia’ is invariably followed by words like ‘disaster’ and ‘meltdown’ and ‘embarrassment’.

Ireland’s newest rugby captain should not share that Pavlovian reaction. Eddie O’Sullivan saw his team start that World Cup with a feeble effort against Namibia, and realising that they had not played enough matches, he pitched the same players into service against the Georgians, hoping against sense that they would stumble upon form and rhythm.

When they failed again, the cause looked bleak and change was inevitable, in the way stitches are inevitable when blood is arcing across the room. Eoin Reddan was one of the incomers, as Peter Stringer, after seven years as unquestionable first-choice scrum-half, was dropped.

Reddan would win his first cap, in the Stade de France, against the tournament hosts. When the team for that match was announced on a distant afternoon in Ireland’s dreary team hotel in Bordeaux, he was pinned against the wall by a maul of reporters. He was one of the men tasked with staunching the flow and making the colour return to Irish cheeks.

Here was a story that hadn’t been bent out of shape by the steady collapse of Ireland’s plans. Reddan, then, must think of Georgia and have happier sensations than some of his peers from that tournament?

No, he says. He is brisk in correcting this point.

‘I know it seems beneficial from the outside but as much as you think guys in the stand might want the team to struggle so you can get in, then when you do get in, it’s into a team when they’re struggling,’ he says, half an hour after Schmidt announced the Limerick man would lead the team today.

‘That’s one of the things I know and I’ve learned: you need to be fully behind the team in those situations in order to be able to play when you get picked

‘That is why the team mentality is so important. It will help you to deal with the pressures.’

This reply speaks to Reddan’s plain, sometimes brusque nature. His career has not been one sweet climbing graph. Rather, he has scrapped for notice and, on getting it, has often had to scrap all over again.

He left Munster because of Stringer’s dominance, moved to Wasps and became a European champion. He returned to Ireland and joined Leinster to challenge Tomás O’Leary for the Ireland No 9 shirt, but with O’Leary edging that battle, Conor Murray then emerged.

And at Leinster he had to make peace with Schmidt’s dedication to rotating his scrumhalves, with Isaac Boss starting many of the away European ties. It is no wonder Reddan is such a fierce advocate for the primacy of the team. He has absorbed that wisdom from his share of dugouts.

And in coping with setbacks, he has realised something about leadership: it is about conduct, not words.

‘I remember at the (2011) World Cup getting dropped after Australia and I was shocked,’ he says. ‘I remember thinking, “If I’m shocked, everybody must be shocked, and this is another opportunity where if I deal with this right, maybe we’ll all deal with it right and we can do something pretty special here and I could get back in later on”.

THAT’S A chance for me to lead, even though something negative happened. This week for me, something positive has happened again and it’s my first time doing it and I’m pretty sure lads are watching me.

‘I can tell. Some of my best mates are watching me to see how I eat my dinner! Once I realise that it’s not about getting anyone’s attention or banging doors; it’s just about getting my stuff right, which is what I expect from the other lads.’

Reddan has served under an inspiring list of captains: O’Connell, Brian O’Driscoll, Leo Cullen, Raphael Ibanez and Lawrence Dallaglio.

Between Lions captains, World Cup winners and champions of England and Europe, those names make for a dazzling set of references. Four of them were renowned for the quiet, determined leadership of which Reddan spoke: doing the right thing and being seen to do it.

Then there was Dallaglio. The Wasps and England back-row forward was just second to Martin Johnson on a list of England warriors the rest of the world loved to hate. Reddan smiles widely when asked for some memories of his time with him, however.

He holds Dallaglio in high regard and offers a story that explains why. ‘We went out to play a Powergen Cup semi-final and it was against Leicester and Lawrence was at the front. And we’d never really done this at the time, but we all stood, ready to walk out together.

‘But Lawrence turned full circle. Himself and [Leicester captain and England teammate] Martin Corry had been having this big ding-dong in the press about England, and he turned full circle and looked straight at Martin Corry, full on, inviting Martin Corry to turn around and face him.

‘It was bizarre. And we were all behind, watching. Both teams could see what was going on and Martin Corry wouldn’t turn around. And I remember thinking, “Oh f****** brilliant!” We literally flew out of that tunnel and we f****** minced them.’

HE ADMITS to some apprehension after Schmidt told him earlier in the week he was captain for today. Reddan says his tension stemmed from the fact that Ireland beat South Africa comprehensively and then picked a side with 13 changes for the next match; complacency could take hold in those kinds of conditions were people like Schmidt and himself not vigilant.

Reddan turns 34 on Monday, a certifiable veteran almost nine years after his debut. The battle rolls on: Stringer and O’Leary are in England now, Boss is not in the national squad, but with Murray first choice, there is Kieran Marmion pushing from below, the Connacht scrum-half on the bench this afternoon.

Retirement is no concern of Reddan’s, however. He feels physically well and Schmidt is running a national camp that continues to teach new things to even the old

stagers.

‘That’s the key,’ nods Reddan. ‘When you’ve got family and you’re away, you had better be away for something, you know what I mean? You don’t want to feel like this is wasted here. You obviously need incredible support from home which I have,’ he says, mentioning his wife Aoife and their two children.

‘That’s a great help to me because it clears your head and lets you off but you never for once think – there’s not a single second when you think – God what are we doing here?

‘The team is getting better, you’re getting better, and the one thing about the coaches – all of them – is that when they’re not with us they’re obviously thinking about things and coming up with things and watching things because what we’re doing is always changing a little bit.

‘When you change a little bit all the time you end up in very different places.’

Today, it is at the head of a line of Irishmen for the first time in his life.