‘He’s got credit in the bank with me, has Diarmuid, as a bloke’ – Graham Rowntree on Munster��s Diarmuid Barron

The hooker had taken over the Munster captaincy from Peter O’Mahony and was a key part of Graham Rowntree’s plans, but the rug was pulled and he was off to a crowded medical room to try and fix his injured foot.

He worked hard with the doctors and physios and got his rewards with a comeback off the bench against Ospreys last Friday.

The Tipperary native looked a little rusty, but that was to be expected, and for the head coach and the team, his return to fitness is a big lift as the stakes keep getting higher in the URC knockouts.

“I’ve been watching him for weeks now because the rehab guys train next to us and I’m watching training, and I’m looking over at guys coming back from injury and he’s been flying. We’ve been cautious with it, and rightly so,” Rowntree said.

“But he’s got credit in the bank with me, has Diarmuid, as a bloke, as a rugby player, as a leader.

“He’s a Munster man, and when he becomes available to you, I’m not going to hold back, he’s come straight back in there. That’s nothing against Eoghan Clarke. He’s been brilliant for us, and I actually said this in front of the group, ‘Clarkey, you’re unlucky’, but it’s the feel of a coach, and in selection with the other coaches, it felt right to bring Diarmuid in.”

Graham Rowntree previews Munster's URC semi-final clash with Glasgow

Barron’s recovery surprised himself.

“When things are going well, you have an added incentive to go a bit harder; whether it’s a conscious thought or not, I think it’s there,” he said. “Things have been going well, so I was delighted to get back in amongst it.

“I thought my season was done, to be honest. It’s an injury you don’t mess around with, as well, so I’ve been told a lot, but then as I was progressing, you can see light at the end of the tunnel.

“You’ve got to be real with yourself as well.

“If you are getting pain in it you have to pull back. There was no messing around with it. But when it’s good, in fairness to Ray [McGinley, Munster physio], he said, ‘We’ll keep going and we’ll progress as it goes’.

“The last few weeks now, the light at the end of the tunnel was there and we were able to drive on a bit.”

Once he heard the news, Barron was forced to process it and work hard.

“You’ve no option but to accept it. There are peaks and troughs, I was flying it at the start, tearing into it and there was a bit of pain [which] came back and I didn’t really know where I stood with it,” he said, paying tribute to McGinley and members of the Munster strength and conditioning team.

“So, peaks and troughs, but the only way out of it is into it, so that’s how it was.

“I would have been six weeks non-weight bearing, so that keeps the foot up, just crutching around the place.

“In fairness to Mossy Lawler [Munster’s skills coach], he has you in sitting down doing skills and stuff pretty much straight away, just keeping your eye in and that was great, being able to sit in on a few boxes and pass away, whether it was JK [Jean Kleyn] or Roman Salanoa.

“There was a core rehabbing group, something you don’t want to be in, but when you’re there, you’ve just got to immerse yourself in it and the lads are fantastic.”

Timing is everything and Barron has arrived into a team looking to defend the title he helped secure in Cape Town last season.

“It’s a lot of the same group really. I think we’d be silly not to have belief in ourselves in terms of the squad we have and the work we put in. I think the lads have been fantastic, the way everyone applies themselves every day,” he said.

“Results haven’t gone our way at times, and that’s just life, that’s rugby, but it’s very exciting, coming down the back straight of the season when knockout games come along, and to be able to do it in Thomond, which is a bit different to how we had to do it last year, is extra special.”