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No more Mr Nice Guy as Tommy O’Donnell sets out to prove a point
Appetite whetted by his first Irish caps backrower is hungry for success
Munster’s Tommy O’Donnell was disappointed to lose his place on the Irish bench after the Wales Six Nations match. photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
Gerry Thornley
Topics:
Sport
Rugby
Chris Henry
Elisse O Grady
For O Donnell
Guy Nice
Joe Schmidt
Jordi Murphy
Sean O Brien
Tommy O Donnell
Sat, Mar 29, 2014, 14:18
First published:
Sat, Mar 29, 2014, 01:00
0
Tommy O’Donnell has changed in the last year or so. The first thing that strikes you is that he has bulked up, particularly around his shoulders, after using 10 enforced weeks out from the game this season to add a few kilos, mostly to keep sane as he puts it. And having been given a first few tastes of playing for Ireland, there’s a new-found hunger that is palpable.
Until a year or so ago, one former Munster player wondered if O’Donnell was a little too nice for his own good. Innately pleasant and polite, it would always be stretching things to say “No More Mr Nice Guyâ€, but after winning his first couple of caps on the summer tour, and then sampling the Six Nations on home soil off the bench against Scotland and Wales, like so many others forced to watch on the outside, O’Donnell is desperate for more like never before. He now believes there’s more silverware in this Munster squad, and more international games in him.
Of all the Munster hard-luck stories during the Six Nations, O’Donnell’s is probably the unluckiest. He didn’t appear to do too much wrong in his 13- and 16-minute cameos against Scotland and Wales, but the meticulously demanding Joe Schmidt raised some defensive issues with him after the latter game.
Thereafter, although O’Donnell has also played across the back row and Jordi Murphy has similarly been focusing more on open side this season, he missed out to the latter for the remainder of the tournament.
There’s no point in beating about the bush. That must have hurt bad.
“I thought it went pretty well,†says O’Donnell of the Welsh game. “I didn’t really see it coming and I would be lying to say I wasn’t disappointed. I really didn’t think I had played that badly, but obviously Joe decided he wanted to freshen up the bench and John (Plumtree) felt that Jordi could offer something, so you have to respect that. John gave me a couple of things to work on, so that’s what you have to do, go away and work on them.â€
“Joe decided that’s the way he wanted to go and at the end of the day he’s the coach, he decides. You can’t let it eat away at you. You have to move on and clear your head because that’s what he’s looking for as well.
“He’s looking for players that can do that, that come in and out of the squad and that take the good with the bad. That’s what makes a good rugby player, like you don’t dwellon the past.â€
That's a bit of an interview Gerry Thornley did with TOD. Pretty much says what Feic and BG8 say didn't.
Appetite whetted by his first Irish caps backrower is hungry for success
Munster’s Tommy O’Donnell was disappointed to lose his place on the Irish bench after the Wales Six Nations match. photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
Gerry Thornley
Topics:
Sport
Rugby
Chris Henry
Elisse O Grady
For O Donnell
Guy Nice
Joe Schmidt
Jordi Murphy
Sean O Brien
Tommy O Donnell
Sat, Mar 29, 2014, 14:18
First published:
Sat, Mar 29, 2014, 01:00
0
Tommy O’Donnell has changed in the last year or so. The first thing that strikes you is that he has bulked up, particularly around his shoulders, after using 10 enforced weeks out from the game this season to add a few kilos, mostly to keep sane as he puts it. And having been given a first few tastes of playing for Ireland, there’s a new-found hunger that is palpable.
Until a year or so ago, one former Munster player wondered if O’Donnell was a little too nice for his own good. Innately pleasant and polite, it would always be stretching things to say “No More Mr Nice Guyâ€, but after winning his first couple of caps on the summer tour, and then sampling the Six Nations on home soil off the bench against Scotland and Wales, like so many others forced to watch on the outside, O’Donnell is desperate for more like never before. He now believes there’s more silverware in this Munster squad, and more international games in him.
Of all the Munster hard-luck stories during the Six Nations, O’Donnell’s is probably the unluckiest. He didn’t appear to do too much wrong in his 13- and 16-minute cameos against Scotland and Wales, but the meticulously demanding Joe Schmidt raised some defensive issues with him after the latter game.
Thereafter, although O’Donnell has also played across the back row and Jordi Murphy has similarly been focusing more on open side this season, he missed out to the latter for the remainder of the tournament.
There’s no point in beating about the bush. That must have hurt bad.
“I thought it went pretty well,†says O’Donnell of the Welsh game. “I didn’t really see it coming and I would be lying to say I wasn’t disappointed. I really didn’t think I had played that badly, but obviously Joe decided he wanted to freshen up the bench and John (Plumtree) felt that Jordi could offer something, so you have to respect that. John gave me a couple of things to work on, so that’s what you have to do, go away and work on them.â€
“Joe decided that’s the way he wanted to go and at the end of the day he’s the coach, he decides. You can’t let it eat away at you. You have to move on and clear your head because that’s what he’s looking for as well.
“He’s looking for players that can do that, that come in and out of the squad and that take the good with the bad. That’s what makes a good rugby player, like you don’t dwellon the past.â€
That's a bit of an interview Gerry Thornley did with TOD. Pretty much says what Feic and BG8 say didn't.
it's getting like old days and I like it ........ I like it alot.
