Flannery well decorated without the frills

EUROPEAN CUP QUARTER-FINAL: Gerry Thornleytalks to Jerry Flannery who is proud to play for the 'small nation' of Munster and is relishing today's challenge against Gloucester

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13th. The Munster squad, management and supporters are making their way back from Clermont relieved at having salvaged a bonus point that had kept their latest Heineken Cup odyssey alive. But one player had other things on his mind.

Jerry Flannery's season was about to unravel.

He's been drug-tested after the game and had been utterly oblivious to the crime he had perpetrated.

But word had filtered through from home that the television pictures of him stamping on Clermont's Julien Bonnaire were damning. A mate had rung Flannery to tell him he might be in a spot of bother. "He said 'it looked like you caught him in the head with your boot' and I said 'oh no'. A couple of supporters said it to me then on the way back that 'you could be in a bit of trouble'. It was only when I got home that night that I watched it a few times and I kinda got a shock when I saw it myself first. I knew I didn't do it deliberately but I also knew how it looked and there could be a bit of bad news coming my way."

Although he had been cited, the hearing was deferred until after the ensuing pool decider against Wasps at Thomond Park. More than enough distraction in that anyway. But then came the verdict. An eight-week ban for "deliberately" stamping.

'Deliberately' was the word that rankled as much as the severity of the suspension. It was the attendant slur on his name.

"I got a bit pissed off initially when I got banned because they said that I had deliberately done it, which wasn't true. Some people were saying not to go back in because they can extend it. But if somebody said to you that you had done something and you hadn't done it, you'd defend yourself. I was just real grateful to Donal Spring, Declan Kidney and to Garrett Fitzgerald because they were really good with me."

The ban was halved from eight to four for "reckless" use of the boot. In the event, he broke his right hand against Wasps. He's not sure exactly when, though he reckons it was early in the game from watching the video and seeing himself holding it gingerly. This was compounded during recovery when he strained a hamstring, ruining any hope of reappearing for the Six Nations.

After a shoulder reconstruction in August 2006, he'd been a long time winning back the Irish number two jersey, but although he was technically the incumbent hooker coming back from the World Cup he wasn't so sure himself he'd reclaimed the position. "I don't know if you can say I got it back. I was very aware that if we had gone well in the World Cup then maybe you can say you're in possession, but when things don't go well it's all up in the air again."

As perplexed as anyone by Ireland coming up so short last September in France, Flannery's career hit its low ebb at that point. He'd been proud to play for Munster and Ireland, and had almost taken the positive buzz and public support for granted.

"I had a weird feeling after the World Cup. There was almost a feeling of 'we've let everybody down'. You let yourself down more than anything, but it was a strange feeling and I don't take it for granted now when I'm back in Munster. I understand that feeling comes from working hard and winning games."

An outing for Munster A and a couple of starts against Ulster and Connacht have him primed, although he's rebuilding his season again, focusing on the basics and still searching for what he calls game appreciation. In that A game he found himself looking at rucks when he should have been hitting them. But he's getting there, and his darts were on the bull's eye in the hailstones, wind and rain of the Sportsground, his old Connacht stomping ground for two years.

"The more time you get under your belt, the better you play. But it feels brilliant to be back playing again because your week kinda has a purpose again, whereas when I'm injured I keep packing in extra training sessions because I've nothing to do at the weekend."

Now, back in match-week mode, he keeps a lid on the extra sessions so that he's fresh for the weekend. "It's such a better feeling," he says, chuckling at the one-dimensional nature of it.

"It's probably an unhealthy way to be," he concedes, "that if you're injured you can't function properly, but I suppose that's just the nature of it."

Well, it is his profession. "Yeah, but you don't want to end up like Gazza when you retire either," he jokes, meaning the apparent post-career emptiness that can afflict retired sportsmen.

Back in his breakthrough season of 2005-'06, Flannery set something of a landmark by scooping the lot, European Cup medal, Triple Crown and All-Ireland League winners' medal with Shannon. Taking over his bar Flannerys - what he describes as "my slice of the real world" - from his dad on the weekend of Munster's semi-final, it couldn't have been given a better lift-off than Paul O'Connell inviting the entire province along that night. Alas, the season and a half since has been mostly unfulfilling and frustrating. "I'm sure I'm not the only player that happens to. I count myself lucky in that I waited a long time and then we had a lot of success in one year, and I'd be foolish if I thought it was going to be like that every year. You work so that you have that chance for it to be like that every year, but it doesn't always pan out for you like that and you can't get too disillusioned when it isn't like that."

The moral of the story?

"If you can hang in there and work as hard as you can through all the shitty times then you can get your shot at success."

Now they have it, in a match-up which Flannery likens to the next chapter in 'the story book' that has been the Gloucester-Munster rivalry. For all the merit in emerging with their heads above water in the pool of sharks, Munster still lost on the road to Wasps and Clermont, and to win in Kingsholm will simply require their best performance of the season so far. But, as an incredibly driven individual, that's the way Flannery wants it. "I'd hate to feel that we peaked in our group stage and go on to win the Heineken Cup. That doesn't make sense to me, and I wouldn't even like it to be like that. You want to feel that every game you're climbing and climbing and getting better for it."

Last season's quarter-final defeat in Llanelli is both a more relevant yardstick and reminder to Munster of what's required today. "For me, more than anything, what hurt the most in losing last year was that we knew we just weren't good enough."

Changes were made after some typical navel contemplation. Now, he says, the whole squad understands what they're trying to do on the field as opposed to just the starting XV. Another factor is the emergence of players like Keith Earls, Donnacha Ryan and Denis Hurley.

"That's a really good sign. It's when things are stagnant that maybe it's not going as well, and I'm really enjoying the conditioning and skills training. It's really enjoyable and a good working environment to be in."

He knows, though, the truth in all this will only become apparent from 5.30pm on today. "There's no brave losses. That's bullshit. A brave loss is for losers. A fella sitting in a pub and people coming up buying him pints 'you did well, chin up' doesn't really mean anything. If we lost, we weren't good enough. But we've been working hard now and I feel we're well prepared and I'm confident. I know it will take a massive performance, but I'm looking forward to it."

For all the talk of taking it one game at a time, like the other seven qualifiers, Munster are real contenders again. And for all the unforgettable memories of their 2006 triumph on that day of days in Cardiff you look down the list of winners and see two titles to the names of Leicester and Wasps, not to mention Toulouse's three. To win it a second time therefore, would place Munster among the true elite of European rugby.

"The minute we won, when we were in the dressingroom after we beat Biarritz, that was something we spoke about. The challenge for us now is not to just drop off. We were really aware of that all the time and that's why it hurt so much last year. It's a real ambition to get up there. You want to be up at that level."

Maybe it's his parents, his Limerick upbringing, or even having had a real desire to succeed as a footballer, but Flannery is also a very grounded lad. Whereas making a career in football can seem a near impossible dream via scouts and the numbers game of England, he is part of something that makes dreams a reality.

"One of the things that made me proudest after we won the European Cup was that for any young lads who are playing rugby now, be it Limerick or Cork or anywhere else in Munster, they can grow up thinking 'I can play for a team that's the best in Europe and do it for a living'. That's a serious achievement.

"Deccie (Kidney) always talks about us being a small nation, and I'm really proud that something like that was done. Obviously we're not going to look past the weekend because the game for us has to be our best game of the season. We can't. But it's something we want to strive to get up there, and the sooner we do it the better."

There would be no better shot in the arm for Irish rugby just now either, and you sense it's the likeliest one too.

""There's no brave losses. That's bullshit. A brave loss is for losers.

PROFILE:

Date of birth: 17th Oct 1978. Birthplace: Galway.

Height:1.80m.

Weight:102kg.

Position: Hooker.

Education:St Munchin's College and University College Cork.

Clubs/provinces:Shannon, Connacht and Munster.

Munster appearances:45 starts, 19 as replacement (7 tries).

Heineken Cup:15 starts, 4 as replacement (3 tries).

Honours:Ireland (21 caps, 3 tries), Ireland Schools, Ireland Under-21s, Ireland Students.

Heineken Cup winner:2005-06.

AIB League winner: 2003-04 and 2005-06.