HE MIGHT NOT be the biggest player around but John Hodnett is well able to make a big impact. The Munster openside is 6ft tall and weighs around 105kg so he’s giving up a few inches in height and a few kilogrammes in weight to many other back row forwards.
Yet he is one of the players Munster look to when they need to generate momentum. Hodnett’s speed of foot and low centre of gravity help him to make yards when he carries the ball, he regularly wins big breakdown turnovers, and he has been working hard on his low tackle technique.
As a result, the 24-year-old has nailed down Munster’s number seven shirt, helping them to their URC title last season and delivering some sharp performances in the current campaign, including an excellent showing in the Champions Cup defeat to Exeter.
The Rosscarbery man is enjoying punching above his weight.
“I suppose because I’m not the biggest, tallest, strongest, or whatever, I try to keep low, especially the chop tackle,” says Hodnett.
“That’s something I work on every week. It would be one of the things I work on the most. Getting lower and getting underneath fellas is probably something I need to do. I try to work on that contact area, staying nice and low, taking legs. That’s a big thing.”
He has also been focusing on his passing and decision-making skills, saying that Peter O’Mahony is good to lean on for tips in that area.
Hodnett is “happy enough” with his form this season, adding how grateful he is to be injury-free. He’s had his travails in the past, including a ruptured Achilles tendon in November 2020. Unsurprisingly, he has huge sympathy for team-mate Edwin Edogbo, who has been struck down by an Achilles injury again.
Hodnett’s healthy run has allowed him to continue developing the potential he showed with the Ireland U20s when they won a Grand Slam in 2019.
Hodnett featured for Emerging Ireland on last year’s tour to South Africa but while most Munster fans believe he should be in the senior squad by now, he hasn’t heard anything from Andy Farrell or Paul O’Connell this season.
“No, no, I haven’t,” says Hodnett. “Erra, it’s something I try not to think about too much, to be honest. Hopefully, if I’m playing well, I’ll get called in and that’s all I can influence myself.
“I’m just trying to put my best foot forward every time I play and that’s it for me really, just try to get better every week and perform.”
He gets another audition on New Year’s Day as Munster take on Connacht in Galway. And whatever about his prospects of pushing into the Six Nations mix, Hodnett just wants to help his province get back onto a winning run.
One win in the last five games isn’t what Munster expect of themselves.
“We’re obviously disappointed, the games were close and we felt we could have won,” says Hodnett.
“We’re looking forward to that Connacht game and hopefully we win there and that will change a lot of the mood.
“Wig [Graham Rowntree] was only saying today that we’re in a better position now than we were this time last year.
“So it’s disappointing that we’ve lost a few games in a row but we always have the belief we can beat anyone on the day.”
