Quinlan ready to cut loose

Brash, cocky and with a propensity for shooting from the lip, Alan Quinlan, buoyed by the assurance of youth, never questioned his high-speed graduation to rugby's fast track . . . until three months ago.

A central figure in Shannon's third successive All-Ireland League crown, Quinlan assumed that the Munster team management would recognise his pivotal role with a place on the provincial team.

They didn't and for the first time since he announced his arrival on the senior team at Tipperary junior club Clanwilliam, as a 17-year-old number eight, Quinlan began to have doubts about his rugby career.

Shunted aside without explanation, the 23-year-old who up to then had all the answers, desperately needed to ask some questions. "It was a rough time, very hard to be honest. I got a lot of different thoughts in my head and didn't know what to do.

"I suppose I need to know why. I felt that I wasn't even in with a shout, wasn't on the bench, basically wasn't a part of their (Munster's) plans.

"I didn't say anything to anyone - a few years ago I would have. On a few occasions I was tempted to ask them what I was doing wrong, was I wanted. At the end of the day I knew I was good enough for the team and that if I got my chance I would take it.

"I did seek advice. Mick (Galwey) told me to keep my head down and work harder. I have never been one to give up so I wasn't going to sulk. Deep down I suppose I wanted to show them."

He provided a perfect riposte with a series of stunning displays in the European Cup, submerged under a bouquets thrown admiringly by opposing coaches.

Cardiff's Australian coach Alex Evans, enthused: "He runs straight, he runs hard and he can unload the ball. He's got a bit of a future."

This followed on the back of a wonderful individual try in Munster's opening game, a narrow defeat against Harlequins at the Stoop in which Quinlan scooped up a loose ball, sold a glorious dummy and raced 50 metres to score under the posts.

He embraced the demands of his first European campaign with a facility that belied initial personal doubts. "I was a little bit nervous at the start, wondering what I was doing on the pitch with these players. I used to think about the opposing backrow but once the match started it was different.

"I enjoyed playing against the high profile names, guys like Laurent Cabannes." Quinlan's ability to thrive among the elite manifested itself in the contracts thrust under his nose by London Irish and Cardiff.

He is flattered if a little perturbed by the attention. "It's nice to be linked with the big clubs, it's an indication that I have made some progress. But it is also disconcerting. I have come a long way in a short time and that gets a bit frightening at times.

"It's nice to get a bit of a profile but media attention can be dangerous for the player. You can get carried away and also some people begin to treat you differently, as if you have suddenly sprouted two heads."

Quinlan's candid and honest introspection, tinged with a new-found maturity, suggests a watershed where the swaggering impetuosity of youth is replaced by a more calculated approach.

It was not always so. Shannon coach Niall O'Donovan, who along with Declan Kidney took over the coaching duties with Munster this season, was well versed with Quinlan's `growing pains.'

"The first time I saw him was an 18-year-old. It wasn't difficult to spot the potential but it wasn't until two years ago that he joined the senior squad." He quickly made an impression earning the sobriquet of `Cheeky.'

O'Donovan recalls, laughing: "No sooner was he in the team, actually at the first session, than he wanted to take over. He had his own way of doing everything. We had to try and clip his wings a small bit.

"In fairness to the guy he has come on significantly in the last three months. He knows that he had problems with regard to talking out of turn at training sessions, backchat to referees and always offering the smart answer."

Quinlan acknowledges that he had to curb his natural exuberance. "I used to be a little hot headed, doing a lot of shouting during a match. Now I am trying to control my temper and concentrate on my role within the team."

He concedes that he no longer cherishes the fire and brimstone of the dressingroom warm-up, preferring a more relaxed build-up to matches. "I don't get too hyped up in the warm-up anymore, I listen to the walkman. I just go through the pre-match routine with the other players but there is no screaming or roaring or hoppin' the head.

"Listening to the walkman helps to stop the mind from wandering, helps me focus. It suits me more than banging my head off a wall."

His introduction to Shannon came through international amateur golfer Arthur Pierse's garage where he worked as a mechanic. Quinlan explained: "This guy Melvin McNamara, a Shannon man, was driving an oil truck and he used to call into me at the garage. "He used to follow Clanwilliam a bit as well but asked me up to play with Shannon under18's. A dual status arrangement became monogamous two years later. It signified the culmination of a journey taken frequently in his youth, in the company of his father to watch Shannon play and the fulfillment of a promise made to himself that he would some day join his hero, in those days, Mick Galwey, on the Shannon team.

Quinlan graduated to the senior team as a blind-side wing forward and it is only in the last couple of months, ironically with Munster, that he has switched across to the other flank, a position he now prefers.

He loves the looser, less constrained demands of the number seven jersey, the freedom to roam, while acknowledging that the position is as difficult to play well as any other.

"There are plenty of specifics involved, linking between backs and forwards, making sure you are first to the ball, lines of running, making big tackles, putting pressure on the out-half . . . . these are all basic duties.

"I'm under no illusion about the work that I have to do. I have made it to a certain standard of rugby but to make that next step requires a big improvement. I have to work on my pace off the mark, breaking from scrums and at line-outs. I think I'm fast enough but not sharp enough and that's down to concentration.

"That requires extra work, more training and identifying weaknesses, I know I have a lot of them." A further illustration of his maturity may be gleaned from his reaction to speculation that he is challenging strongly for a place against New Zealand at Lansdowne Road on November 15th.

"I think it might be too soon. I don't know if I am ready for that. I'd love to get a few A caps this year. I mean I'd love an international cap but prefer if it did not come until I learn a bit more. If it does, though, I'd put body and soul into it."

Quinlan's fear is shared by O'Donovan, who though convinced that his young prodigy is a future international, does not want to see him compromised by suffering premature elevation. "Alan gave a commitment to rugby by giving up his job before anyone offered him a contract.

"He is serious about his rugby and I have no doubt that he has the potential to play for Ireland. But the last thing I would like to see him do is blow it all by going a step too far, not being able to cope at the higher level and put away on the shelf for evermore. It's a tough one to call.

"He's as capable, probably as anyone around at the moment, but that is for others to decide."

Quinlan's priority remains securing one of the additional national squad contracts to be announced this week. He's got his heart set on it, wants to stay in Ireland and is prepared to turn down lucrative contracts with London Irish or Cardiff.

Many Irish clubs will watch this situation closely because for them it marks a test case in the IRFU's commitment to apply a tourniquet to a cross-channel haemorrhaging of young talent. It is one they must make.

Quinlan's future, whether in London, Cardiff or Limerick is assured. These are merely additional signposts that may pass by in a blur on the fast track.