Gerry Thornley finds out why the presence of Mick Galwey, even asa replacement today, can help inspire his Shannon team-mates to victory

In the joint press conference the day before last Saturday's Munster-Castres Heineken European Cup semi-final, a French journalist formally, if tongue in cheek, asked Declan Kidney when he would drop Mick Galwey. On the premise that Ireland only ever lost when Galwey wasn't playing, he reasoned the same logic must therefore apply to Munster.

Increasingly over the years such a theory, usually shrouded in partisan Shannon or Munster colouring, doesn't seem so far-fetched. Today's well-timed first club start of the season (his 19th with Shannon) in the All-Ireland League final is a reminder that he has been a mainstay for both his club and his province this past decade or more.

His record is remarkable, and we'll surely never see his like again. He has been Munster's one ever-present in the Heineken Cup, last Saturday's appearance being his 44th in the competition. All told, he has played for Munster 125 times since making his debut in 1987, and has captained them 81 times.

Yet we almost forget that he's also played 102 times for Shannon in the AIL, winning four league titles from 1995 to 1998, in addition to nine Munster Senior Cup medals and a couple of Munster senior league medals. It's ridiculous really.

You look, too, at Galwey's international record, particularly say the highly credible 3-0-3 record in six starts against England or the equally remarkable record against the Scots (given the trend in this fixture of the last decade or more) of 2-1-2.

Then you wonder if he shouldn't have won more than 41 caps, that perhaps dropping him upwards of 15 times wasn't a bit profligate of Irish selectors and coaches.

The man is, quite simply, a natural born winner and a natural born leader. In much of this Galwey's career is not dissimilar to Fabien Galthie's in France; prophets in their own land so to speak. Likewise Galthie suffered more selectorial slings and arrows than he should have done. Similarly, each became cause celebres, with Galthie's leadership and playing abilities only fully appreciated in his 30s, during which time he has won 26 of his 49 caps.

In the latter stages of their AIL campaign, Shannon were stuck in the horns of a dilemma over what to do with their full-timers, Galwey included. Hence he was confined to bit parts off the bench, with the net result that he had only completed one full game in eight weeks coming into the Castres game.

Yet there he was, his face a reddened combination of fatigue, wounds and sunburn after almost 90 minutes playing time in the south west of France last Saturday, but still standing at 35-years-old. Go figure. "Sure, 'tis a young man's game," he quipped at the time.

He had, as usual, been an inspiration; changing the tactical emphasis in the first-half when the Munster needed to stick the ball up their jumpers for a while, having team-mates ready to run through the wall with a tear-filled speech at half-time, and then having the presence of mind to call them into a huddle at full-time and remind them there was "one to go".

"People were elated at winning a semi-final and not many would have thought of doing that," says Munster manager Jerry Holland. "But that just shows you the leader in the man. It takes a special player to do all of that and he is a special player," says Holland.

His presence, even as a replacement today, serves to further remind us that Shannon's four-in-a-row, like the Thomond Park factor, was the primary source of Munster's winning mentality of the last few years. Galwey concedes that the Shannon dressing-room didn't hear a peep out of him for several years, but he watched, listened and learned almost without realising it himself.

Pat Murray was a team-mate of Galwey's with Shannon from 1987, captaining the first two of the four-in-a-row and coaching the fourth. Murray also captained Munster in their first European campaign eight years ago - since then Galwey has led them every time - so he was better placed than most to observe the gradual emergence of Galwey the leader.

"The thing about Gaillimh is that he has great people skills. That's his forte. He can talk to anybody as well as being a leader," says Murray.

"Most players just concentrate on their own games, which is hard enough to do, but he always had a word for you on the field. It mightn't be much, just a "well done" or "keep it going" but it was always the right words at the right time and you knew you were doing it right then. It kept you going and made you try even harder."

It's true Galwey was never formally captain at any stage in the four-in-a-row side, but as Murray points out "captaincy at club level is much more than just match days. You have an awful lot of other things to do and if you're captain of Munster as well then it would be impossible to do both." Besides, as Murray also points out, Galwey was always pack leader.

Several factors and personnel went into the transformation from the Shannon side of the late 1980s to the conquerors of the mid 1990s, the coming together of the Niall O'Donovan/Brian O'Brien, coach/manager ticket perhaps most of all, the emergence of a new breed of players such as Anthony Foley, Eddie Halvey, Alan Quinlan, John Hayes and others.

"We had a far better team," says Murray. "No disrespect to the team of the late 1980s, but we were more forward orientated then. 'Shannon if it rains' was the catchphrase but in the four-in-a-row we didn't want rain. We set new standards from year to year, we were giving out that we didn't have guys on the international team and we trained harder each year because we knew everybody wanted to beat us. But we believed we were good enough to beat everybody in that four years."

When assessing the joint successes of Shannon and Munster in recent times, it wouldn't be stretching things to say Galwey has been more influential than anybody else.

"Absolutely, without a doubt," says Murray, almost shrieking to beat off any other suggestion. He's been the one constant link all the way through. He's helped others around him believe that they're good enough. There's a belief there in teams he leads. When the chips are down and you're backed into a corner, he's the fella you'd want to have there with you."