Holland v Denmark as it happened

In his last column of 2010, Johnny talks about being knocked out of Europe, his plans for the Christmas and his disappointment at not getting the style gig on JOE.ie.

 

It’s desperately disappointing to be knocked out of the Challenge Cup at the weekend, as it’s a competition we’ve done well in the last few years. I suppose we kind of left ourselves with a lot to do when we lost in Italy earlier in the season, which was one of those days.

Certainly, over both legs of the games against Harlequins I thought we were the better side; unfortunately we struggled to get across the try line. Some people may say that we lost the games, so obviously ‘Quins are a better side, but I still feel that we matched them up front and particularly away from home when we had so much possession. I suppose it was another game we should have won, but at some stage we need to get across the line.

I’ll have Christmas dinner with my wife in her parents’ house and then probably have some more dinner in my own parents’ house later on. I’m lucky, I have the metabolism of a greyhound so I can eat anything!

With the freezing weather, there was a danger the game might not go ahead, but the pitch was fine, they made a great job of it. I don’t know if straw has ever been used on pitches before, but it worked really well. Obviously it was still freezing on top, but underneath the straw was moist and the surface was fine to play on. I’m surprised it hasn’t been used before because it’s a really simple and practical solution, but we know we can use it again which is great.

We gave away a lot of penalties on Friday night; you’ve got to go with the referee’s discretion at times, but I thought some penalties awarded against us were questionable. I’m sure Harlequins thought it was the same for them as well and that’s the way the game is and you’ve just got to roll with the punches. The bottom line is we had a few opportunities to win the game and we didn’t take them.

Bad blow for John Muldoon

I came off the last day with a sore back, but I’ve had a scan since and got the all-clear. Unfortunately, we suffered a few more injuries which is what often tends to happen when you’ve got such a short turnaround between games. John Muldoon has a fracture in his arm, which is really unfortunate for him. We’re not sure how long he’ll be out for but hopefully it won’t be too long.

Connacht will badly miss John Muldoon in the next few weeks

It will probably be around four to six weeks but it could be less than that, he’ll know more when he sees the specialist. It’s a big disappointment for John because he was beginning to find his feet after coming back from injury earlier in the season and playing really well. I’d imagine he won’t be out for as long this time and he’ll get back into it a lot quicker once he comes back.

We get to change our focus now from the Challenge Cup to the Magners League, which had been going quite well for us in terms of performances, but we need to start getting results. We’ve some big games against Munster and Leinster coming up and the games around the Christmas period are probably some of the most enjoyable to play in to be honest. We’re playing against Munster on St.Stephen’s Day, there’ll be a big home crowd and I imagine a big crowd from Munster as well so there’ll be a great atmosphere and I’m really looking forward to it.

'Tis the season of sacrifice

We’ll be training Christmas Eve and then we have Christmas Day off before the game. I’m used to not having a ‘normal’ Christmas at this stage, you get used to it and it’s not a big deal. People say that missing out on Christmas is a big sacrifice, but I’ve been doing it since I was 18 or 19 and it’s something you get used to, you don’t regard it as a big deal. You just know that you have a game the next day and you get on with it, there’s no self pity or anything like that.

I haven’t had what you’d call a normal Christmas since around 1999 or 2000 when I was playing AIL and playing for Connacht as well. Then I moved to England for a few years and while we were there, all the expats based over there would meet up and have Christmas dinner together.

I saw Paul Galvin saying he’s going to be doing a style column for JOE.ie. I have to admit I was a bit pissed off that I wasn’t asked to do it.

As for this year, I’ll probably have Christmas dinner with my wife in her parents’ house and then head on to my own parents’ house and probably have some more dinner up there. I’m lucky I have the metabolism of a greyhound so I can eat anything! There won’t be any mince pies or anything like that, but I’ll probably have the guts of half a turkey!

Apart from that, I’ll probably catch up with a few friends in Galway that are home for Christmas from Canada, Dubai and places like that on Christmas Eve and might meet them again on St. Stephen’s day for a couple of beers. As I said, people say to us a lot that it must be hard not having a normal Christmas, but as long as you’re meeting old friends and there’s a bit of a feelgood factor it’s grand.

Secret Santa

A lot of workplaces do secret santa at this time of year and we’re no different in the Connacht squad. Unfortunately as this goes out on a Wednesday and we don’t give each other our presents until Friday I can’t reveal who I got, but let’s just say he’s got red hair and is very, very fast.

I couldn’t finish this week’s column with a bit of a dig at the site; I caught the Late Late Show over the weekend and saw Paul Galvin saying he’s going to be doing a style column for JOE.ie. I have to admit I was a bit pissed off that I wasn’t asked to do it. Maybe they think I’m too ugly, but if you straightened out my nose and gave me a full head of hair I think I’d be alright. Maybe we can arrange a makeover or something.

Finally, I’d like to wish all the JOE readers a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll continue to do so in the New Year.

Johnny’s column will return in the first week in January 2011.