Harmless comic shows formidable streak

RUGBY DONNCHA O'CALLAGHAN INTERVIEW:PLAYERS BRING their own auras to a space. Paul O'Connell arrives to the room under Thomond Park preaching excellence with a capable, can-do vibe about him. Doug Howlett bobs in and is all friendly "mate" and charms. Ronan O'Gara, well you try to work out his mood first, don't you. Peter Clohessy and Anthony Foley, they packed some presence when they walked into a room. They still speak of Foley in hushed tones, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON

“We’re better when we’re bitter,” Donncha O’Callaghan tells us was one of Foley’s aphorisms. O’Callaghan’s off-field persona is, well he’s the card, the wag, the court jester. The players also see him as the prank man, the guy whose shorts ripped off during a match against Cardiff Blues but he still took his place in the lineout in red underpants. It was David Wallace’s expression you need to see as O’Callaghan lined up to take the catch. The referee finally intervened. Respect.

O’Callaghan fits the role. He comes in today with no shoes or socks, his black hair burned brown at the edges by the African sun and his smile 100 megawatt. He lolls back and gives the impression that he doesn’t actually mind these inquisitions.

There is no malice, no underlying feuds he needs to fight, no snarling or bitterness or obvious irritations, no grudges or issues he’s itching to get off his chest. In Donncha’s life, O’Callaghan is often the punchline.

But when he was named as captain of the Lions against the Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth last month, it marked a significant departure for the secondrow, a shift in how those from outside the Irish scene perceived him.

“A football team in our street leagues,” he says was the last time he ever captained a team. Never in school. Never with Munster. Never with any Irish side.

At the end of the tour he was then made an ambassador for relief agency UNICEF, a roaming publicity maker. Content to play the harmless comic, the player has revealed a more formidable side. The mistake would be to see O’Callaghan the player and O’Callaghan the personality as the same creatures.

“I suppose it’s always been about what’s the latest joke I’ve played. But when you ask the lads when it comes to playing I take it very seriously,” he says. “I didn’t expect it (captaincy) at all. It was a big surprise. I think it’s just about setting a standard. Even if I wasn’t captain out there I’d still want us to perform to our best and play well.

“Before I may have kept my mouth shut and said nothing and gone along with it. I think it’s just from being infected around the place with good leaders, the likes of Pauli (O’Connell), Drico (O’Driscoll). Guys like that. You look around the Munster squad. We’ve a lot of them.”

After the Lions tour he took off to Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, for a holiday. He also put some time in to his ambassador’s role and found himself in Johannesburg. Floods of children have been coming down from troubled Zimbabwe.

The relationship between O’Callaghan and the organisation began with a photo shoot to highlight the need for malaria nets. From there it blossomed.

“A school was set up and last year they’d 17 students. Now they’ve 1,216,” explains O’Callaghan. “All these kids want is education. It’s mad to chat to them. We went up to see the church where they stay. The same amounts of girls come across but due to trafficking a lot of them get lost.

“There were people sleeping on the stairs. The day we called the water pipe had burst and there was a young kid sleeping down on the step just about two feet away. It was sewage.

“We came up the stairs . . . just from having nieces and nephews, although I’m never let near them, I’m a clutz . . . there was a one-year-old baby sitting around on her own on top of the stairs. Who’s looking out for this kid? She was just sitting up. There was no one around. Incredible. To be fair the bishop of this church saw the problem and he basically opened the doors.

“I would like to get involved more. I know it’s hard with rugby. But you can make excuses about that. It opens your eyes a bit more. You see stuff like that and you have a cause nearly.

“I have to sit down with them now and make a plan. One of the kids said to me ‘I want to be a lawyer’. Then he started talking about wanting to be a commercial lawyer and was going right into it, completely over my head . . . I was chatting to a 14-year-old thinking what the f**k’s he on about . . . it’s incredible how driven they are. I’m not on a quest or anything like that. All they want is a chance.”

Disappointed he didn’t get a Test chance with the Lions, the free spirit of Munster rugby remains stoic and in the never-ending search for motivation, the coming season is a chance to prove them all wrong at Lions Inc. “I wouldn’t like to bitch and moan,” he says. “It didn’t go my way. I’ve just got to take that on the chin.”

But your going to push Paul O’Connell aside as captain now, we suggest. O’Callaghan beams down a big messer’s smile and clenches his fist. “That’s what I said day one,” he answers tilting his head. “There’s going to be big changes around here.”

As ever with the secondrow it ends in laughter, O’Callaghan laughing at himself.