IT’S THURSDAY 3 August, two nights before Ireland play Italy in a World Cup warm-up match, and there’s lots of emotion in their team room at the Shelbourne Hotel in the heart of Dublin.
The three men set for their debuts that Saturday at the Aviva Stadium are being presented with their first senior Ireland jerseys. This is something Andy Farrell’s squad do well. They make the week special for new caps, inviting their loved ones into the room for the presentations.
Munster wing Calvin Nash is among the debutants and his parents, Jason and Cathriona, are there along with Calvin’s girlfriend, Ciara.
Keith Earls stands up with Nash’s number 23 shirt and starts talking.
“I’ll never forget it,” says 26-year-old Nash now.
The moment is special for many reasons.
There’s the fact that it’s Earls doing the presentation. Earls had already broken into the Munster team when a 10-year-old Nash decided he was going to play rugby. There wasn’t much rugby history in the family but young Calvin, who had been playing hurling and football up to that point, told his dad he wanted to give it a go.
His father asked him who he wanted to play for and Calvin answered, ‘Munster’ straight away. So his dad brought him down to Young Munster RFC and after going along to his first session in tracksuit pants, he took to it instantly.
Nash is fulfilling his dream these days with Munster and occasions like last weekend’s win in Toulon mean the world to him.
“It felt like going back to Munster when I was watching as a kid, them getting big wins in Europe, big wins in France,” says Nash.
Earls was a hero as Nash grew up watching him play for Munster, Ireland, and the Lions. Then they became team-mates with their province and country.
There in the team room, Earls starts to talk about Nash with respect and warmth. How he had heard about Nash back when he was a schools rugby star. How great he has been to play with. How they’ve become friendly over the years.
“I wouldn’t have known he thought some of the things he said,” says Nash.
There’s also the fact that Nash gets to share this moment with his parents and Ciara. Every rugby player knows how much their loved ones sacrifice to support them, so it’s special to have them there.
Calvin’s younger brothers, Jordan and Brandon, played rugby at Crescent Comprehensive College too. Jordan doesn’t play anymore but Brandon, also a wing, is with Shannon RFC now after emulating Calvin by helping Crescent to a Munster Schools Senior Cup title in 2022.
One person who isn’t around anymore is the lads’ grandfather, Eamonn Maher, who passed away in 2014. He was a huge part of Calvin’s life and Nash has a tattoo reading ‘I See the Moon’ in Persian script on his forearm, a nod to the lullaby Eamonn used to sing to him when he was younger.
“He played a big part in almost raising me,” says Nash. “I was massively close to him. We’d always be chatting.
“He was the worst singer ever but he’d be trying to sing ‘I See the Moon’ in his best opera impression. When he passed away, it was really tough but I always think that I’d love to show him where I am now.”
Adding to the pride is that Earls is Nash’s fellow Limerick man. Nash grew up in the village of Crecora, a 15-minute drive from the city.
Having started with Young Munster, rugby kicked on for him in school at Crescent. Nash was only 15 when he knew rugby was the job he wanted to do. He was still in fourth year when he was one of the stars of Crescent’s 2014 Senior Cup-winning team.
He rose through the Munster Schools, Ireland Schools, and Ireland U19 teams before graduating, Crescent getting pipped in the Munster Schools Cup final in his last year in school when he played in the centre.
He then had the pleasure of returning to Young Munster, winning a Munster Junior Cup medal with the Cookies the same year he left school. Some folk in Limerick would say that’s better than the URC medal Nash has now.
Nash went on to play in the All-Ireland League as he secured his place in the Munster academy. Those days with the Cookies, when he was still a teenager playing against older, bigger men, helped Nash believe that he was good enough to keep going in rugby.
“You can see you’re well capable of putting it up to those lads, rather than being daunted,” he says.
These days, Nash lives five minutes from Munster’s training centre in the University of Limerick.
“Limerick was probably historically a bit of a working-class city, so I suppose being from Limerick you have that bit of edge to you and you try to be a hard worker as well,” says Nash when asked to sum up its spirit.
“I feel like Limerick people stick together as well and they’re very supportive. The flags are everywhere, they get behind their own. The slagging is a good thing as well.”
This moment in the Shelbourne, when he gets his first Ireland jersey, is also special for Nash because there have been times when he thought this dream might not happen. There were times when he thought he might even have to leave his beloved Munster.
Nash captained the Ireland U20s in 2017, the same year he made his senior Munster debut when he was still in his first year with the academy. He appeared to be on an unstoppable upward trajectory but things slowed up in the seasons that followed. He was hit by injuries and there was strong competition for places in the back three.
Earls, Andrew Conway, Simon Zebo, Ronan O’Mahony, Darren Sweetnam, Alex Wootton, Mike Haley, and a couple of others meant minutes were scarce. The most appearances Nash had made in one season was 10 right up until last season.
All Nash has ever wanted is to play for his home province, but he admits that before last season’s breakthrough, he had started to think he’d be silly to stay any longer if the story of frustration continued.
“It was incredibly hard,” says Nash. “Honestly, there were times when I was saying to myself, ‘What am I doing?’
“I was giving 100% all the time, training hard. There were years where I played like eight games max, asking the coaches what I could do better, and then I’d be wrecked at the end of the season from trying to achieve it and not getting here.
“It was tough to keep going consistently but I had this self-belief in my head that it was only a matter of time before the hard work would pay off.”
And so proved to be the case in Graham Rowntree’s first season in charge. Nash started 17 games, scoring seven tries as Munster marched to their URC title.
The picture started to change with Ireland too. Nash was included on the Emerging Ireland trip to South Africa in late September 2022. That tour was controversial at the time but it was important for Nash.
Working with senior Ireland coaches Simon Easterby, Mike Catt, Paul O’Connell, and John Fogarty, he felt he got his foot in the door.
He went back to Munster with his confidence boosted and took off as a first-choice wing, earning a call-up to Farrell’s squad for the 2022 November Tests. Going into camp for the first time was a whirlwind experience.
“It felt like it was going 100 miles an hour, you know that way? The sessions, there was a lot to take in, your lines had to be perfect. You needed to be organising another lad here while watching for space over there. You’re in at the deep end and I learned a lot.”
He didn’t get a cap, although he featured for Ireland A against the All Blacks XV, but returned to Munster with even more belief that he could make the grade at Test level.
It has helped that Munster’s attack under Mike Prendergast has similarities to Ireland’s, particularly in how the wings are expected to roam all over the pitch.
“I used to always have it in my head that ‘I’m on the right wing, that’s my wing,’” says Nash. “I was almost thinking that if I went infield, I’d miss a chance out on the wing.
“But Prendy and also the Irish set-up changed my mindset. I feel I can get on the ball more and enjoy the game more. That’s probably been a work-on for me, not getting caught on the wing too long. It helps the team. We have a lot of freedom to roam.”
So if Nash isn’t part of a breakdown wide on the right, there’s no reason for him not to be popping up in midfield or out on the left a few phases later. The only drawback is when other fellas get to finish tries wide on the right.
“I keep saying to the lads that every time I leave my wing to try do something positive, Tom Ahern gets a cross-field kick and scores a try! It helps when he’s 6ft 10ins or whatever catching a high ball.”
Nash has always been an aggressive defender, which also lends itself well to the Irish system. He reckons playing in the centre when he was younger helped but he has always felt that defence was a strong point. He loves jackaling in search of breakdown turnovers, something Munster defence coach Denis Leamy backs him to do.
“I was saying to Leams that I’m getting in positions to make the poaches but I’m not getting rewarded,” says Nash. “I got one at the weekend so there’s my one now!”
Throw in the aerial skills that were on display for his try in Toulon last weekend and Nash is a strong contender to start on the right wing for Ireland against France in their Six Nations opener in Marseille on 2 February with regular first-choice Mack Hansen missing.
Nash wasn’t part of the 2023 Six Nations squad as Ireland won the Grand Slam but he was back for the World Cup pre-season, impressing in camp and finally getting the nod for his debut in the Italy game at the start of August.
It’s not hard to understand why that moment in the team room was so special for him.
And two days later came another moment Nash will never forget. With 19 minutes to go, he was sent on as a replacement for Robbie Henshaw and with everyone in Crecora and Limerick and Young Munster and Crescent and Munster watching, he had a surreal feeling.
“I remember the second I got on the pitch and in my head it was just, ‘What the hell? I’m playing for Ireland, this is crazy.’”
There’s a good chance Nash will be able to soak in a few more experiences in the green jersey in the coming months.
