O'Callaghan will be the one doing the milling

John O'Sullivanfinds the lock determined to help Ireland take the initiative against England tomorrow.

Winston Churchill once spoke of a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He was referring to Russia but for Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan discovering why his charges have made slow starts in their opening two Six Nations Championship matches is perhaps just as perplexing.

The Ireland players have addressed the issue over the past 10 days in the hope of avoiding a similar situation against England at Croke Park tomorrow.

Donncha O'Callaghan outlined his thoughts on the subject. "It's a disaster for us. You're chasing your tail from the off, maybe seven points down. We have to eliminate it from our game.

"We addressed the fact last week in camp. Eddie (O'Sullivan) went into the ins and outs of it. We tried to work it out and hopefully now that we have addressed it, ticked a few things; hopefully it won't be a problem.

"For me, it is a mindset. We need to get out of the blocks quicker. Maybe we are going into games with a defensive mindset; we'd wait to see what they have and then go at them. Especially for this game we have to be on the front foot and attack in every phase.

"People say to you 'go out and enjoy the game and hope it goes well' and all this stuff. You don't really enjoy internationals, even Munster or club games. You enjoy winning afterwards. The only bit you might enjoy, well for me, it's the anthems. It's the only time that you can stand there and soak it in for a few minutes.

"I have different triggers to get ready for the kick-off and the game. It's a great honour to stand there for your anthem but in three minutes you're either going to be running full force into one of them or they're coming at you. It's (about) getting your mind ready for that. Other sports are a bit different as they don't have to worry about the immediacy of being involved whereas rugby is different. It's a case of milling someone or being milled."

The Munster and Ireland secondrow points out it's not down to a lack of effort or awareness on the part of the players. "It's getting your first touch, your first pass, scrum, hit; it's getting yourself into the game. It might be something small but for the first three or four minutes you're battling to get just get out of the blocks. I don't think it's a lack of effort of fellas going out and waiting until we are seven points down, it's just down to a different mindset, an attacking one."

In recent times it has been Ireland's back play that has been celebrated but in order to provide the spaces farther out, there is plenty of more mundane chores being attended to with due diligence up front. The Irish pack doesn't always receive due credit and some players don't receive as many kudos as they should from media and supporters.

"You hear people talk about Paulie (Paul O'Connell), Simon Easterby and John Hayes - I'll pick out the three of them because they don't get enough credit for the work they do. They do so much of the in-close stuff, the unthanked jobs.

"I know Paul is really good on the ball but his work-rate is incredible, same with Simon Easterby and Hayes. If you have workers like that on the team then it allows others to have a higher profile. We focus within our pack on battling away to see who has the highest work-rate.

"The three of those fellas always set the tone. It'll be other fellas' contributions that allow others to have the high profile games. They get enough credit in our circle."

O'Callaghan would be too modest to list himself but he falls within that circle, sacrificing a higher profile for the team.

He wouldn't mind shedding the martyr image for a while, though. He laughs: "I do know I am in a team with Wally (David Wallace), Leamy and Rory (Best), fellas that are well able to carry the ball. I know there is an element of the work having to be done.

"I go through my defence with Steady (Graham Steadman) and I'm looking for a few more dominant tackles; the Neil Best type. I get an awful lot of help from the backroom staff. Mervyn Murphy has been brilliant, his analysis of my game and helping me with running lines.

"I'm happy enough with work-rate but I'd like to get on the ball a bit more and up my level of dominant tackles. They are things that'll come. Hopefully, they'll come. One day I'd like to be sitting here and being asked what I did differently but I know there won't be anything. It'll have just gone my way. I could do with a few more moments like that.

"That's what I like about it up here (the Ireland camp): you get honest feedback. There's no pulling the punches. If you run a crap line, you're told. You are going to get singled out. I love that, being accountable with no grey areas. It's a big thing for me."

Still it's impossible to escape the feeling that O'Callaghan will sacrifice prominence for victory tomorrow.