Leinster vs Munster

“I just got a phone call from Michael
Cheika. Eric Miller was moving on and
Victor Costello was gone. They needed a
back-rower to come in.
“I looked at it and decided there was a
spot there at Leinster to start regularly in
the Heineken Cup. I signed in March.”
It was a smart move given the resources
in that area for Munster, the list including
Anthony Foley, Alan Quinlan, Eddie
Halvey, Denis Leamy, David Wallace, Jim
Williams and Stephen.
“The reaction in Munster was fine. It was
no problem at all. The lads were grand.
There was no issue,” says Stephen.
“Even at that stage, rugby was treated
as a business as well as your passion.
The lads knew it was a good business
decision for me, a good rugby decision
for me to move. They understood it.”
It was the possibility of becoming more
relevant on Heineken Cup days that
made it a relatively easy decision for the
impatient loose forward.
“I think the Leinster lads would openly
say this, there was a vast contrast in the
two teams at that stage, especially up
front.”
In the summer of 2006, the challenge
was to leave that hatred behind and to
embrace those who once were enemies.
“When you move somewhere, you’ve got
to buy into it,” he adds.
“It’s not really about the colour of the
jersey. It is not about the place. It is
about teammates. At the end of the day,
everyone’s the same. They all want the
same things.
“When you are involved in rugby,
generally, people will have the same
motivations, the same common goals.
Once you buy into those, the men around
you become your friends. And you
would do anything for your friends, your
mates. Those friendships were created in
Leinster.”
Those bonds remain.
“Who am I closest to from the group? It
is not like the schoolyard thing where: ‘I
don’t want to say who my best friend is’,”
he laughs.
“We had a reunion in 2019, 10 years
after the first Heineken Cup. It was just
great craic, like we had never left.
“It is only when you leave the game that
you realise what a time you had. I urge
any player now, to savour it. You will
never have that time again.”
When the 2006/07 fixture list came out,
Stephen would have been excited to see
where and when Munster would come.
He still remembers where he was when
Michael Cheika rang on a Thursday
afternoon to let him know he wouldn’t be
starting in that first derby.
In 2008, there would be another chance
to exorcise demons and it came on a
miserable, wet day at Musgrave Park
when Stephen returned from a broken
hand in a 10-3 win in Cork, giving
Leinster much-needed confidence.
“I am not saying it turned the tide. But,
it was one of those wins that helped
along the way, especially for the type
of day it was, lashing rain in the muck in
Musgrave.
“My only memory is of Denis Leamy, my
great friend, giving me a dig and pulling
the jersey over my head, so I couldn’t see
where I was going for 30 seconds. There
was just good niggle to that game.”
When you make the change from red to
blue, you discover that the hype of hate
built up around the contrast in cultures is
not real.
64 | www.leinsterrugby.ie