WATCH: Tommy O’Donnell on Munster V Leinster – “You could describe it as a mini Irish trial”

Following an AC sprain whilst on a training camp for Ireland – which ruled him out of action for about six weeks – Tommy O’Donnell returned for Munster A’ two weeks ago in a home loss to the Bedford Blue in the British and Irish Cup.

With the Tipperary native returning to match fitness, the open side is raring to go, heading into a busy Christmas period and having been handed a starting berth against Leinster, O’Donnell is relishing the derby encounter.

“I suppose you could describe it as a mini Irish trial. I know Leinster like coming down to the atmosphere, they like playing down here so its always a good one to get the upper hand on if you can”

Since O’Donnell last featured for Munster, there have been some huge changes at the province with Jaques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus leaving and Johan Van Graan and JP Ferriera joining the fray. All the while the side have been putting in superb performances and getting huge results, including a first win at Welford road in 11 years last Sunday.

O’Donnell knows he is coming back into a side brimming with confidence and is looking forward to doing battle with their interpro rivals at Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day.

“If you come back into a team that isn’t doing well there might be a lack of confidence around you as well and you’re coming back in as well you might be a little unsure but like you said to come back into a team that’s flying everyone’s high on confidence everyone’s rolling its flowing nicely so it’s a good time to be coming back in and to be available for Leinster is a good one as well, you want to go out there and you want to show what you can do in front of a home crowd”

O’Donnell will make his 152nd appearance for Munster, which is no mean feat considering the depth the Thomond Park side have had in the back row over the last number of seasons.

A lot has changed over the last decade since he made his debut against the Scarlets including a number of notable retirements with the likes of Paul O’Connell, Ronan O’Gara and David Wallace all calling time on their career. When asked about the loss of leadership within the squad since those players have moved on the Clanwilliam man doesn’t think feel there’s any less leadership within the side

“It was never gone but I suppose there’s two years experience there, there’s probably 50 games in the two years played between a lot of those players a lot of those leaders so there about 50 games wiser, 50 games smarter some of the guys have gone away on their second tour for the lions some of them have played their first tour for the Lions, captained Lions.

“That’s just the kind of experience you can only accrue over time and that’s what we lost probably two years ago, with the likes of Paul O’Connell leaving the likes of Ronan O’Gara leaving they had just experience accrued over time so that’s incredibly hard to replace. In those two years since though we’ve accrued we’ve built up that experience again”