AFTER a very quiet Christmas it was back to reality last week and a training camp down in Mayo with the Senior Cup team in St Michael’s that I coach and then a trip to Cork Saturday morning to play Pres Cork followed by a quick dash to Limerick where I was working for RTE TV as an analyst for the Munster against Treviso game in the Rabo Direct Pro 12 league.
Munster won the match quite comfortably in the end 29-11 but the Italians didn’t make life easy for them.
There was as small a crowd in Thomond as I have ever seen and the lack of atmosphere in the crowd seemed to affect the Munster players.
It seemed that they were only operating at 75-80 per cent of their ability and always believed that they would win in the end.
I enjoyed working on the panel although when I turned on my phone afterwards I had a lot of text messages slagging me about the pink tie and the amount of make up I was wearing!
I have only myself to blame for the tie but I will have to get the make-up lady to go a bit easier next time with the powder.
One of my friends said my head looked like one of those Bon Bon sweets!
Munster had performed poorly away to Ulster on New Year’s Eve and it was important that they got back on track with two crucial Heineken Cup games coming up.
They play Castre in Limerick this weekend and I expect them to win comfortably.
The following fixture away to Northampton has the potential to be very tricky even though Northampton can’t qualify.
Niall Ronan went off injured in the Treviso game and with Denis Leamy ruled out for four months with a hip injury Munster will hope Ronan’s injury isn’t serious.
The school team I coach went away to prepare for the Schools cup which starts on 31 January with a match against Roscrea in Maynooth.
On paper we are in the easier side of the draw with Clongowes, St Mary’s, Belvedere and Terenure all in the other half but Roscrea and Kilkenny are very strong this year and are formidable opposition.
We went down to a place called Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar, which caters for sports teams and has an indoor training facility, pitch, gym and ice baths.
Our lads are day pupils and it was a great opportunity for them to spend some quality time with the players from other years and bond.
We worked them very hard and they had fitness each morning before breakfast at 7am, then a morning pitch session followed by either gym or another pitch session after lunch.
The 6th years had 2 hours supervised study each night and the corridors were pretty quiet by 10.30 each night as they were so tired and there was none of the messing you might expect with 36 teenagers away with their mates.
We did some off field fun things like paintballing and bowling and the trip was very enjoyable and successful.
On Sunday Tullow played Carlow in the Leinster league and there was a huge crowd at Oak Park to witness a cracking game.
Tullow lost 1611 and we are very disappointed given we had lost at home to Carlow earlier in the season having played poorly.
This time we played very well and I am very proud of the effort the lads put in.
We are very close to becoming real contenders and if we can sharpen up some small things we will be successful very soon.
Cill Dara come to play us at the Black gates on Sunday and that is now a must-win match.
The Towns Cup isn’t far away either so the rugby season is really hotting up.
Our seconds had another great win and for them this weekend’s clash with Cill Dara will go a long way to deciding if they can win the seconds league for the first time ever in the club’s history.
Leinster got another great win when they beat Cardiff away on Saturday and have now built up a nice cushion of an 11-point lead in the Rabo which will mean they can rest players if needed later on before the play-offs.
Leinster haven’t lost a match since September and their form is a polar opposite to Connacht who were very poor in defeat to Aironi away and have now lost 13 consecutive matches.
They face Toulouse away this weekend.
Leinster travel to Glasgow and while I expect a tough game, Leinster should have too much quality.
The tie of this week is Ulster against Leicester at Ravenhill on Friday night which should be a humdinger.
Ulster are currently top of their pool but one defeat and they may not qualify.
There is lots of pressure on players and coaches this weekend.
They wouldn’t want it any other way.