“It gives the players a bit of belief doesn’t it? When you go into a new environment and you’re asked to play a certain way that’s maybe a little bit different to what you do at home and you’ve only seven days to put it in place, and two of those days you’re travelling to South Africa… those players and the leaders in the group who had to put the plan into place on the pitch, who had to be able to sit in a few meetings, go to a few reviews and then a few training sessions, then being able to figure it out and deliver it should give them an awful lot of confidence. “It gives us more confidence to pick them and hopefully gives more confidence to the provinces to pick them as well.”įor the Munster contingent, former captain O’Connell agreed that the return of wings Calvin Nash and Shane Daly in the starting line-up on Saturday evening, with Jack Crowley, Tom Ahern, Diarmuid Barron, Roman Salanoa and John Hodnett all named among the replacements to face Bulls, can only be a positive for head coach Rowntree as the province looks to kickstart their campaign after a disappointing first four performances that have produced a single win. I know if I was a young guy like some of them and Eddie O’Sullivan or Warren Gatland maybe was the head coach before I came in and if Warren Gatland was coaching me there would have been a bit of stress and pressure in that and there is stress and pressure in top-level rugby so I think they handled it really well and for sure it should give more confidence. “There’s a big pressure and stress in that.
“I suppose hopefully for us there’s a few guys that wouldn’t have been getting game time as well now that have gotten game time and they’ve gotten game time in an Ireland jersey, albeit against Currie Cup sides but they’ve gotten game time in an Ireland jersey with an Ireland coaching staff. Look, I know for sure there’s probably one or two players they would have loved to have hung onto and I totally get that. Speaking to the Irish Examiner in Limerick at the soon-to-launch International Rugby Experience, of which he is chairperson, O’Connell said: “Hopefully, yeah. Ulster’s Dan McFarland has also picked seven of their contingent against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday and despite misgivings outside the IRFU about the merits of the tour O’Connell sees it as a win-win-win scenario for Ireland, the provinces and the players. Friday night’s Connacht versus Leinster derby in Galway came too soon for players from those provinces who only reported back on Thursday but Munster head coach Graham Rowntree named seven of his nine Emerging Ireland tourists at the first opportunity yesterday in his matchday squad for Saturday evening’s URC clash with the Bulls at Thomond Park.
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