Ready to get hooks into France again

Gerry Thornleytalks to a focused Jerry Flannery who remains upbeat about Ireland's chances this evening

Jerry Flannery has been rooming with his former Connacht and Munster team-mate Eoin Reddan on this World Cup. It's funny how they've travelled such curiously parallel careers until the last two years, when Reddan went on his way to Wasps and Flannery stayed with Munster - and at this World Cup as well. If their room hadn't been full of sunshine in the last few weeks, it has assuredly brightened up since last Monday.

Flannery had been confined to bit-parts, as has been the norm for him this past year, culminating in two second-half appearances as replacements against Namibia and Georgia. Having been the rookie of the year two seasons ago when bursting on to the Irish team, his frustration would have been no more acute than Reddan's, who had five minutes in Murrayfield and 26 in Bayonne since the summer.

All changed when both were called into the starting team on Monday, admittedly far less surprising in Flannery's case. "I suppose it's just testimony to keeping your head, to staying focused and positive all the time and keep training. When chances like this come around, you've just got to grab 'em."

Flannery reflects on their "brilliant two years" at Connacht together and has no doubt Reddan has the mentality to cope with his elevation to the number nine jersey. "Redser will be jumping out of his skin to get on the field. He's been brilliant to room with, because he's just so positive all the time.

"He's one of the most intelligent players I know and when he was in Munster he was getting a fierce hard time because Alan Gaffney wouldn't decide who was his second-choice scrumhalf. But he never dropped his head and would ask why we couldn't do something better even if he wasn't involved.

"You've got to have a strong personality in Munster when dealing with the squad, and he wasn't one bit afraid of standing up and saying what we could do better. And he made a lot of sense too. It's tough on Peter too, but this is what happens in the game, people have ups and downs."

Ditto the re-instated hooker, Flannery's father Jerry will be thrilled to hear of Flannery's recall to the starting line-up, albeit after travelling home to Limerick following the opening two games.

"He was down on the beach with us after the Namibian game and gave us a bit of stick, which was constructive and was good. For my family and any old coaches, I feel like I'm giving them a little boost too, which is another little positive."

Almost two years ago, Flannery made his debut as a 69th-minute replacement for Shane Byrne in the autumnal win over Romania. Coming hard on the heels of the 45-7 and 30-14 defeats to Australia, the mood was similarly downbeat.

"Yeah, the cyanide pills were coming out at that stage. But that's the thing, you can't buy into it too much. You gotta try and step back from it, see where we went wrong, and if we can just play well against France this will be a completely different place."

His full debut in the Six Nations' opener was "a sticky game", his first outing against an Italian side, but made memorable by him scoring the game's first try. All his mates who travelled up to Lansdowne Road backed him to do so, some getting 33 to 1.

His first away Test was the ensuing game against France in Paris, which proved a turning point of sorts as Ireland recovered from a 43-3 deficit with half an hour to go to lose 43-31 with four converted tries.

"I can remember that game so clearly. When I was younger I used to always go over to watch Ireland play in France and think 'I'd love to play here'. The fans are so passionate, but Ireland used to regularly get the s**t kicked out of them and I thought, 'right that's not going to happen if I play for Ireland'.

"I remember us playing really well in the first half, but every time we were in for a score, we turned around and we were under our own posts. Sitting in the dressingroom at half-time I thought: 'what the hell is happening?' Then Eddie came in and said we were playing well if we just stopped giving away intercept passes and stopped turning the ball over it would come. And it did turn around before we ran out of time, but it just shows you France will capitalise if you let them have a sniff."

He regards himself as lucky he came into an Ireland team on the up - they would go on to seal a Triple Crown at Twickenham - and a Munster team that won the European Cup, and also picking up an All-Ireland League medal with Shannon that year.

After starting all three Test matches in the summer tour to New Zealand and Australia, no sooner did he look like a fixture in the Ireland side for years to come that, typical of this sport, came a reality check.

He recovered from a shoulder injury just in time to make the Six Nations squad last season, which was an achievement in itself, but by then Rory Best had taken ownership of the number two jersey.

Subsequently troubled by an Achilles strain, since the defeat to Australia in June, 2006, Flannery has started just four games: a Celtic League game for Munster in Ravenhill, that aforementioned quarter-final, the first Test in Argentina, and the Murrayfield warm-up game six weeks ago.

His six replacement appearances for Ireland in this time were all after the hour mark, but Rory Best's dislocated finger prompted a slightly earlier introduction for Flannery in the 53rd minute last week.

With his second touch, a quick transfer across his body, he gave Girvan Dempsey the room to score Ireland's face-saving, as much as match-winning, try, the result he said of practising that same skill with Rory Best, Paul O'Connell and Donncha O'Callaghan for half-an-hour with Brian McLaughlin the previous Thursday morning.

For Flannery, though, the focus this week will be "a strong set-piece and a good D (defence). We've got magicians in the backline, I don't need to be doing anything too fancy. I like to contribute, but I've got to really focus on doing my job first. If everyone did that, there's no bother, so that's what I focus on."

He looks intense on the pitch, but actually tends to be quite calm on match days and presumes it will be no different today. "What's the point? If you asked me to write an article for the Times I'd be nervous, because I've never done it before. But sure I do this all the time, and I try to do my best at it. So, damn it, I might as well back myself."

Mentally and physically, he seems fresh and in better nick than some. "This is a great opportunity. It's like you've got to put a wall between all the s**t that's been there and say 'look where we are now'. We've had these occasions with Munster before. We've had loads of injuries, but we've said 'no, just focus on this game. If we win this game we're out of the tunnel.' Yea we didn't play well against Georgia and Namibia, but look at this weekend. That's all I care about. And there's a job to do there."

That's the attitude.