Failure.

Donncha O’Callaghan has opened up about his biggest fear in rugby – failure. The former Munster and Ireland lock was chatting to comedian Tommy Tiernan on his talk show last night.

For O’Callaghan, he says he doesn’t get a buzz from winning, rather it’s a sense of fear of losing that has driven him throughout his career. Luckily for the Cork forward, he’s won plenty in his time, including two Heineken Cups and a Grand Slam with Ireland.

These days however, losing is a lot more common with his current club, the struggling Worcester Warriors, who are currently second from bottom in the Aviva Premiership.

“The fear is failure and for me that’s the drive as well.” O’Callaghan said.

“I don’t think I get a buzz of the wins, I just try to avoid the troughs.”

“I would rather avoid a loss because to be honest, I carry it with me for the week and I’m bad company.”

“At the moment I’m going over and back to Worcester in England and we’ve been losing an awful lot of matches, so Jenny (his wife) sends me a text, ‘saw you lost, please don’t come home in bad form, p.s bring a Toblerone for my old fella!’