Donncha O'Callaghan
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Appearances Over Time
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Literally dove straight into it.
I remember it.
elbow right into my knee and then that was another one over the top of it.
Same knee.
Yes, his knee is literally, my foot is, my foot is in front of his shoulder, his shoulder's in my knee and then the rest of my body goes over the top of it.
So, anyway, that was, yeah, so that was curtains on that one.
We were obviously losing the quarterfinal at that stage and then we were really fucked.
I bet things weren't bad enough the only one that could finish was leaving so Millennium Stadium on the trolley and then like it was like three lads who kind of I half knew from my Ospreys time and then Eanna Falvey I think was the doctor as well so obviously you're into the dressing room and they take you into this busy room and they're looking at your knee and they could do scans and all sorts and they're like listen you're pretty bollocks to here and then it was I think probably two years later Ireland against Wales Six Nations Ireland
I was it was like the 79th minute like so at this stage I was on the bench for Ireland shaggy like I mean I did everything to get myself back fit for this Irish team like I I really really busted my ass to try and get myself back fit I was playing okay with Ulster I thought I was playing quite well but
do you know with experience I might not have had to be the fastest winger like Zeebo when these guys were there who were unbelievably fast but with Joe Schmidt in particular if you could tick the boxes and do the detail right he would pick you do you know what I mean so you didn't have to be this out and out scoring tries or creating breaks if you were so so diligent so so professional you know he would really rate that so that's what I absolutely
Well, this is it, but obviously, like, so I just knew to get any way I get into this Irish team, I just have to be able to tick the boxes, do everything right, be there doing your video analysis every time you walked into the room, be there asking the right questions in the meeting.
It's the sort of stuff that Joe just hoovered up.
And you can see certain players are brilliant at it.
And that's why they played so many times for Joe, that they might not be world-class athletes or world-class players that would get into the All Blacks, but unbelievable professionals.
So I got myself into that team.
But the questions, like the frustrations with certain people would have on that is that
is rugby a team for box ticking?
Do you know what I mean?
Is rugby a team of just not making mistakes and doing everything perfectly right?
Or is a rugby team about where's the X factor?