Simon Lewis
HAD the pleasure of sitting down across a table from James Coughlan recently and among the several interesting insights the Munster number 8 offered which didn’t make the finished article was this pearl regarding his continued non-selection for the Ireland squad.
“I can’t get upset about it, it’s not in my control,” Coughlan said to the Irish Examiner of his lack of international recognition. “I think that’s where the professional comes in, being an example to the younger lads while the others are away in Irish camp, that just because they’re away, our standards don’t drop.
“If I got a call up I’d be delighted but if I don’t, I’m still just delighted to be playing rugby to be honest.”
Well, with Declan Kidney set to name his squad for next month’s RBS 6 Nations campaign after this weekend’s fifth round of Heineken Cup pool games, Coughlan will not be getting his hopes up despite plenty of evidence to suggest he is as ready as ever for inclusion.
Munster’s player of the year last season has continued into the current campaign with the same sort of levels of energy, commitment and effectiveness that earned him the respect and votes of his team-mates back in May and last weekend’s RaboDirect Pro12 game against Treviso saw him pick up yet another man of the match award.
And today in Limerick, as Tony McGahan named Coughlan him in his usual berth for this tomorrow’s Heineken Cup clash against Castres at Thomond Park, the province’s director of rugby praised the Dolphin man’s contribution to the Munster cause.
“James is certainly a tremendous story for any player that has toiled away in the AIL for such a long time and really believed in the dream to play professional rugby at a big club like Munster,” McGahan said.
“Then to get there and continue to work so hard that you force your way into the starting side in an international forward pack is a great story for anyone to be part of, but especially so for James. That was evident last year and he was rewarded by being our best player last year from his peers and from our supporters.
“His impact this year has grown again, it needed to. Players need to be at their best week and James is one of those guys, but he works tirelessly behind the scenes and he has given us a great impact with carry, with his clean, with his work in tight among the forwards. He has got a great capacity to work back to a lot of kicking situations, so his work rate and impact on the game has been second to none. From a back row perspective, he has been one of our dominant players.”
Referring to Coughlan and his back-row colleague Niall Ronan as unsung heroes in the Munster side, McGahan added: “We are delighted with both of those guys because they don’t come with a big, high profile but they have got the job done every week with regard to Scarlets, Northampton and Castres, teams with probably bigger names and bigger forward packs and reputations and size. They’ve got the job done and we are confident they will continue that for [games] five and six.”
And maybe even into the Six Nations campaign. We’ll wait and see on that score but in the meantime, here are a few more thoughts from Coughlan in that recent interview.
COUGHLAN ON....
Munster’s narrow victories in Europe
“It would be nice to win a game by 20 points! We’re grinding it out. Some of the games we’re playing enough rugby to win two games but little errors are costing us turnover balls when we shouldn’t really be and giving teams results. Our execution has been up and the better we execute the easier it’s going to get for us, so we’re not going to be relying on ROG’s boot to win a game maybe as much as we were.”
Those 41 phases
“I’m sure if you look back at it there’s probably three or four penalties in there and I’m sure for Northampton there’s maybe two or three on their side as well. But you get that and they’ll even themselves out.”
The rejuvenated Munster scrum
“It’s something we had to put a massive emphasis on because we got a reputation for giving away penalties or a lot of free kicks. We’ve worked on it and there’s a lot more trust in the scrum now. We’ll grind it out and we will get front-foot ball off it. We’ve been grinding away it with Macca (scrum coach Paul McCarthy) for the last 18 months and maybe now we’re getting the rewards for it.”
The boxer’s approach to scrummaging
“In the scrum now we’re aiming for something, like a boxer doesn’t aim for the head he’s aiming for behind the other fella’s head. We’re the same, we pick a point behind where you want to go and that’s where we’re all aiming for. It’s little techniques like that, that all add up.”
The impact of BJ Botha
“BJ’s been a fantastic addition but if it wasn’t working it wouldn’t be all BJ’s fault. It’s always been about eight men pushing harder than the other eight men and the minute you lose sight of that then you’re in trouble. It’s not just the front row it’s all of us and when it’s our turn we have to all scrummage as hard as we can.”
The rehabilitating David Wallace
“We were hugely disappointed for Dave missing the World Cup the way he did. But you see him in training now and he’s immense already. He’s flying it. Him and the others, Felix Jones and Troy Smith, their work-rate is tremendous and there’s no let-up with them. It’s incredible and they set an example themselves in trying to get back as quickly as they can.
The next generation of back rowers
“Peter O’Mahony’s been immense, he’d be a fantastic footballer and I’ve no doubt he’ll play for Ireland for a long time, and Paddy Butler coming through, it’s gas to think he’s only 21.
Helping the youngsters
“It’s always about respecting the jersey and making sure you do as much as you can when you’re in it but you also try and help out the next fella along. If they come to me I’ll help them as much as I can, the same way I went to Axel and to Quinny and Wally. That’s what we’re about and as long as that kind of stuff continues then we won’t be far wrong.”
Being last season’s player of the year
“It was a massive boost, not just for me but for Katri and the kids, and my mum and dad. That’s been the case for a long time but even just to be nominated with the calibre of players, the likes of Earlsy and Doug and Rog was a massive thing for me and coming from the players as well, that’s why it means as much as it did. I was just happy that the lads thought I’d had a great season.”
Playing for Munster
“It’s still a privilege to hear your name called out. Every Tuesday or Thursday when the team is called out, you still have the butterflies and the minute you stop getting those kind of butterflies is when you get a kick in the ass and you’re watching games from the stand.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/1DTdB2tJ_Uo/post.aspx
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