IRELAND v WALES TOMÁS O'LEARY: GERRY THORNELYfinds the scrumhalf glad winning ways were restored against England - and seeking more of the same in the last days at GAA HQ

SO BEGINS the final chapter, so to speak, in Croke Park. A four-season sojourn to the spiritual home of Ireland’s national games ends over the next two Saturdays with the visits of Ireland’s fellow Celts.

Also fittingly, no Ireland team in history has probably ever been as infused with players who played Gaelic in their formative years and no-one encapsulates that more than Tomás O’Leary.

Ireland’s 26-year-old scrumhalf is the son of a true hurling legend in Seánie O’Leary. Not just that his father was part of a four-in-a-row Cork team, who won the last of those in 1984, and a three-time All Star, but he was also an outstanding corner forward. Tomás O’Leary himself was part of a Cork All-Ireland minor winning team and, but for attending CBC Cork, might never have looked sideways at a rugby ball instead of a sliotar. Above all his team-mates, perhaps, the next two Saturdays have a special resonance for O’Leary.

“With the history of Croke Park and the history of our nation, our culture, it is a massive part of our identity, the GAA, so it’s a massive honour for us to play there and for me personally, anyway. Definitely it’s the end of an era and we want to finish that on a high.”

Knowing his desire to be a professional sportsman, his parents were the first to give him every encouragement. There’s been no regrets mind, and even if Ireland had never played at Croke Park there wouldn’t have been any.

“It does put the icing on top of the cake but I genuinely would have been happy if I gave up the hurling at 19 and tried to make it as a professional and failed and went back playing at 22 or 23. It would never have been in the back of my mind I could have been a professional athlete and played for Munster and played for Ireland.

“If I tried it and failed at least I would have known and worst case scenario, I would have missed three or four years’ hurling. So it was a no-brainer decision for me.”

It perhaps helps that his family have seen him play at the Jones’s Road citadel and for them too the next two Saturdays will be special.

“It will be a good buzz for my parents watching their son play for Ireland but I think it’s hard for them to enjoy watching games because as a decision-maker, I do make mistakes playing rugby and they do hear things in the crowd.

“I’d say the aftermath of games is more enjoyable if we’ve got the victory. They’d be nervous watchers of the game. I suppose most parents and most fans are but it’s great for me to play in Croke Park and follow in his footsteps, in a certain manner.”

The last two Saturdays in the Six Nations encapsulate how quickly fortunes in sport can change. No Ireland player was happy with their performance that day against France, he concedes, least of all himself, and he describes the day as the worst he’s had in an Ireland jersey.

The first few days were the toughest, and you sense that what he calls the sense of “embarrassment” will remain a salient reminder of what can happen if everyone isn’t close to being on top of their game.

“I had a very poor game that day and it’s hard to take when you play that badly. It’s very raw for maybe two or three days but then you have to get on with it, get back into training and get back and focus on the next game. It’s tough to take, all right, but it’s part of being a rugby player and I suppose the part most people don’t see is the days after you play.

“It’s how you react to those things that makes you, even going forward in life . . . I suppose that’s the beauty of professional rugby is that it’s not all glamour and glitz. What the public might see and what you know; that, hopefully, kind of develops your personality. It’s a learning curve for future life but it’s not enjoyable at the time.”

O’Leary concedes that in the aftermath of winning, one can gloss over mistakes more readily, whereas in the analysis of a defeat, nothing is glossed over.

“I suppose we did give them easy points too and then we had to chase the game,” he says of the defeat to France, also admitting they chased the game too much, too early. “I think that’s definitely something we learnt, anyway.

“Deccie is fairly experienced and he didn’t panic and I suppose when your coach isn’t panicking, or whatever, that rubs off on you.”

As with falling off a bike, the great thing about losing in round two is round three rolls along two weeks later. O’Leary and others were determined to avail of their reprieve, and though daunting, playing England at Twickenham was in some respects the perfect antidote.

“I hadn’t played at Twickenham before. The lads who had said it’s a great place to play and a difficult place to play. For me, personally, it was brilliant to get my first start at Twickenham.”

No less than beating themselves up excessively for one below par performance, so they can’t have a backslappers’ ball after one win either. But for O’Leary, things went especially well. His box-kicking and defensive work were top notch, and his running and awareness were key contributors to two of the three tries.

The box-kicking, now an integral part of the game like never before, is something he’s worked hard on, while his innate speed is part of the team’s armoury, and one he enjoys. The run infield and offload to Tommy Bowe for the match-winning score was reminiscent of Fourie du Preez setting up JP Pietersen against the Lions, although apparently, Ireland have been practising that move since before then, and had used it before if not to such devastating effect.

“That’s something we’ve been working on for the last while in training,” he says with another knowing smile, “and it’s nice when it comes off on the pitch. Obviously we were lucky that they defended the way they did but Tommy finished it brilliantly.”

Wales offer a more potent and off-the-cuff threat to Ireland than England did, and O’Leary is liable to have his hands full. He must be a defence coach’s dream. The effectiveness of those little chips over the advancing blue line by the Welsh in the second half last Friday week against France could provide another test for O’Leary as sweeper.

But not only does he defend strongly around the fringe and sweep behind the first line, he also corner flags and, on occasion against England, he could be seen defending as a quasi-winger on the outside, even shooting up to cut off the outside channels.

“For Tomás, there were certain parts of his game that people understand are his strengths,” says Les Kiss, Ireland’s defensive coach. “I think he’s been working on other areas, like being able to cover critical little lines behind the defensive line; also covering wide channels, just reading that.

“It’s a fluid role, it’s not just a traditional behind-the-ruck role all the time. He’ll read where he feels he needs to be, and I was happy for him that he came up with a really good game against the English because by his own admission he wasn’t at the top of his game against France.”

He is clearly a key man in the Kiss system, though modesty forbids and all that. “I suppose you just read it and whatever, like. Les prepares us very well for what the opposition are going to throw at us, but the Welsh team are planning a few things that maybe we haven’t seen so you have to react on the pitch, and we have good confidence in our defensive system so we can do that.”

A deep-thinking and highly driven athlete, and held dearly to people’s hearts in Musgrave Park and Thomond Park, O’Leary is somewhat guarded in his interviews lately, perhaps betraying the pressure he feels under; there’s still a glint in his eye of one of the jokers in the Munster dressingroom – “the life and soul of it”, according to one team-mate.

On their trip to Perpignan, in joke homage to ex-Perpignan player Mick O’Driscoll, O’Leary recorded an apparently brilliant French rap on his iPhone and had it played on the team bus.

There’s a part of him that still has a grá to play for Cork one day, though he laughs and admits: “Maybe junior hurling is always a bit more realistic.”

He wonders how far his body can take him but to come from where he’s come from is some achievement. In a highly competitive position, he’s ahead of Eoin Reddan, Peter Stringer and Isaac Boss as the Irish number nine. He has won two Heineken Cups (in ’06 he was on the bench) and a Magners League with Munster and a Grand Slam with Ireland. Chosen for the Lions before injury cruelly did for his tour, by rights he should be a Test Lion now too.

“You’re constantly looking forward and you’re constantly looking to the next game but like, yeah, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved so far. I’m proud of being a Munster man. I’m playing for Munster, I’m proud of representing my country,” he says, his voice dropping a level or two amid a discernible trace of emotion.

“I don’t take that for granted at all. It means a hell of a lot to me to do that. I’m proud of representing my family and my friends and playing for Munster and playing for Ireland and it’s a big thing to me. It’s something I’m enjoying and it’s something I want to do for a long time more.”

A proud son of a hurling legend, with plenty more to achieve yet.

My life outside rugby

“OBVIOUSLY I enjoy GAA, I love going watching my local team playing hurling, Erin’s Own. I love supporting Cork hurling. Other than that I live a fairly boring life,” he quips.

Such is the lot of a modern-day professional sportsperson.

In fact, he has completed an Arts degree in English and Geography in UCC.

“I’m interested in English so hopefully I’m going to do a Masters in English next year.

“It’s something I’m looking at at the moment.

“I enjoy theatre . . . particularly studying Shakespeare and stuff like that.

“But I don’t have a hectic social life. I play the odd game of golf but not at the moment, not when you’re playing.”