They say he's the only man in Limerick who can leave his car unlocked, maybe so, but it was still clamped at Shannon when he came home with the victorious Munster team from Toulouse and a famous Heineken European Cup semi final victory.

No doubt the clamper did not know the name of the car's owner, perhaps he likes living dangerously, or not having to sign the clamping notice legibly didn't give a toss, I don't know. But that's Peter Clohessy's reputation.

At 34, still the heart and soul of Munster rugby, the craggy faced, pit bull terrier prop has been labelled a thug, suspended from the International game but yet managed to shrug off the dark days and become the darling of the fans, all the fans.

This season may well be his last hurrah both for Ireland and Munster. And no matter how the Six Nations Championship goes or whether Munster can again take the European Cup by storm or Young Munster win the All Ireland Championship once again, Clohessy will be in the thick of everything.

His face may wear a scowl of determination or a sneer of confrontation - it depends whether you see it from a few feet away as a player or from the safety of the grandstand- but behind he façade lies a heart of pure granite, with a head to match. No, no I'm only kidding. No doubt in years to come doctorates will be awarded for learned tomes on "The Anatomy of a Prop" and many a thesis will address the question of: "Violence on the rugby field, the result of Child abuse or good coaching?"

And no doubt "The Claw" and his acts of terrorism, real or imagined will feature large in them. And that's not as daft as it may sound after all British Universities offer some bizarre subjects as part of degree courses. Its possible, God help us, to study David Beckham (Staffordshire University) as part of Culture Media and Sports Studies. Leisure Management and Rugby Studies include singing rugby songs and students get a season ticket to Saracens. That's at Chiltern University College, Buckinghamshire.

And the list goes on to include surfing, science fiction, darts, golf and gambling. And when eventually Peter Martin Noel Clohessy hangs up the boots and spends his Saturday afternoons abusing referees from the sidelines - that's his stated ambition for his life after rugby - he will smile into his pint and chuckle at the myths which already cluster about his name.

No, dear reader, this is no "muddied oaf" of the football field, behind Clohessy the public image lurks the man who was schooled by the Jesuits at Crescent College and educated at the university of hard knocks. Only a man with such a background, a man with his feet solidly on the ground and equipped with a sense of humour could have survived, having become an idol in Limerick, that most catholic and critical of all sports mad cities.

How else could he have had he good sense and taste to marry Anna, daughter of the late Harry Gibson Steele, himself a man who made his mark as a sports administrator. Harry, as English as Ewan Fenton and fish and chips, came to Ireland a salesman, fell in love with the place, wed a Limerick lass and later represented Limerick F.C. on and became Chairman of the League of Ireland, l966-67.

Clohessy, I am reliably informed also flirted, successfully but briefly with the round ball game before joining Young Munster, playing for the Combined Provinces and making his debut for Munster against Ulster at Ravenhill during the l987 - 88 season. Fenton by the way won an F.A. Cup winners medal with Blackpool in l953, Blackpool's first triumph in the competition and of course a special first for the late great Stanley Matthews. Ewan later joined Limerick as player manager and stayed on, in his school of motoring, to teach the natives to drive on the left hand side.

I don't know what influence, if any, Harry had on the man who wooed and won his daughter and I rather fancy it was nil but nevertheless Clohessy powered his way into rugby folklore with his club, Young Munster and his province. The most often expressed comment about Clohessy by coaches and players is:" what can you say about Peter" and that says it all and says nothing.

But the sight of this quiet colossus surrounded, in clubhouse bars, by players against whom he has just played, tells us a lot about the man. And always there is that disarming twinkle which reveals a great deal more about himself than he disclosed in a recent question and answer profile commissioned by my friend and colleague Karl Johnston (another Limerick man).

A tongue in cheek mixture of fact, fantasy and pure fiction elicited some of the following gems. Greatest Player of all time -Mick Galwey; Greatest Irish player of all time - Mick Galwey; Suggestion to improve rugby - pay the players more; Worst moment in Rugby; - France, March l996; Worst habit - blinking; Most admire sports person - John Eales; Most admired person in general: - myself.

And so it went on and although I could see the hand of Mick Galwey in it all, it's the sort of gentle messing in which sportsmen indulge when they don't want, mostly for the sake of modesty, to reveal too much about themselves. But once he takes the field, there is no mistaking Clohessy or his mission, what you see is what you get, there is no mask, intent is chiselled on his face and what a joy that must be for the younger players around him.

A former Munster hooker once resorted to fisticuffs to articulate a difference of opinion with a critic, Clohessy has no such need, his wit and his inherent honesty are sharp enough to emphasise any point he wishes to make. The current Munster team, bristling, as it is with talent, is the best the Province has ever produced and if Keith Wood, David Wallace, Ronan O'Gara and the like, occasionally grabbed headlines, Clohessy still produced his best ever season. Stand Up and Fight, from the film Carmen Jones (based on the opera Carmen) is a fitting Munster anthem and it fits nobody better than Clohessy.

© Tom Keogh 2000

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