A FIVE-DAY TURNAROUND between two key fixtures is more manageable when you rock into the week with a spring in your step.
Munster’s last-gasp, comeback victory over Ulster in Belfast on Sunday entirely transformed the complexion of a training week in Limerick which will culminate in a trip down the N20 to Cork on Friday, where South Africa’s Lions will attempt to leapfrog their ninth-placed hosts in the URC table.
It will be an important trip to their second home for playoff-chasing Munster and to home-home for their outside back Shane Daly, who grew up only a few minutes’ drive from Musgrave Park and believes the southern province started the new year at Kingspan as they mean to continue on Leeside and beyond in 2023.
“Coming in here this week was a lot different to coming in after the Leinster week,” Daly smiles. “That was a game we felt we left behind and to bounce back and to have a win like that [over Ulster] in the end was a massive thing because we’ve struggled in those kinds of games this season; we’ve come out on the wrong side of a few close games.
“Those kinds of games can swing your whole season. I think something like that can inspire us, to have those moments in the locker for later on in the season.
“It’s nearly a good thing we have a short turnaround to carry the momentum and hopefully we can get a similar result on Friday — in terms of winning anyway.”
Daly has started 10 of the 11 games for which he has been available for Munster this season, coming off the bench only away to Northampton in their Champions Cup opener.
While the Munster-related headlines of late may have been grabbed by comparable newcomers Jack Crowley and Antoine Frisch, or the resurgent Gavin Coombes or, most recently, the departing Ben Healy, Douglas native Daly has put together his best body of work since he was last capped by Ireland in November 2021.
The 26-year-old attributes his uptick in form both to his increased consecutive minutes this season and his functioning as part of a more fluid attack, with Mike Prendergast affording him opportunities to influence the game in more central areas as well as from his wing.
“In previous seasons, I was in and out,” Daly says. “There were times when I might have one of my best games one week and I might not even be travelling the next week.
“It has been a frustration for me in the past where I’ve felt I’ve had to hold the edge and wait for the ball to come out.
“This year, we’re a lot more proactive in what we’re allowed do as wingers: when you see space, you can work to the other edge. There’s kind of no number on your back at times in the backline for Munster this year and for me, something like that is massive because I grew up playing as a centre so I’d be quite comfortable in those types of positions on the field anyway.
It’s what I’ve been crying out for over the last few seasons, just having that opportunity to dictate play, where we play on the pitch. It’s always been a strength of mine and I think I’m finally getting to show that a bit rather than just being someone who’s chasing kicks, catching kicks, that type of thing.
“I think that was probably what I would have been known for until this season but that was always the side… that would have been quite frustrating, that I wasn’t able to show [what I'm capable of] in previous years.”
That concept of Total Rugby sounds nice in theory but it’s beginning to look aesthetically pleasing on the field, too, even if it remains a work in progress.
Ulster were forced to make 290 tackles against Munster last Sunday, the third most in the history of the URC or its previous iterations: a sign of Munster’s improved ball retention on the one hand, but an illustration of just how hard they had to work for their 15 points on the other.
Daly says “accountability” and “trust” have been central to Mike Prendergast’s philosophy this season while the former scrum-half has tried to overhaul an attack which routinely appeared dysfunctional under his and Graham Rowntree’s predecessors.
“Mike really has trusted that every player who takes the field has the ability to play in every role in the backline, whether that’s first receiver or whether that’s out on the edge trying to beat players one-on-one.
It’s actually just really trusting fellas rather than just having the nine and 10 really dictating how we play. Like, the wingers can call which side we go or what play we’re running. That’s just a real trust that comes from the top down, to believe in the players to be able to do that.
“I think there have been a lot of players who have stepped up this year and that’s been a massive reason why.”
What has equally changed for Daly this term is that off the field, he is beginning to take more responsibility, too.
That’s largely the result of his being taken out of his comfort zone on autumn’s Emerging Ireland Tour to South Africa where, by dint of the fact that he was then 25, he assumed the role of a ‘senior player’.
While the tour divided the opinions of the Irish rugby public and initially annoyed the provinces who each lost several players at an early stage in their respective seasons, Daly points towards Jack Crowley’s return to Munster — as both a more confident player and as a bigger dressing-room presence — as evidence of its merits.
And for Daly personally, the three-week stint in South Africa under the tutelage of Simon Easterby and co. was a “class experience” which had a similar, catalytic effect.
“I think for me, I was maybe out of the Irish scene for the guts of 12 months before that and it really put me into the spotlight in front of the Irish coaches again. And to be able to get back into the shape — obviously, small things had changed over time that I needed to catch up on.
“I came in as an older player in the Emerging Ireland set-up which was different for me because, I suppose, my whole career I’ve always been one of the younger people in the squad. That really gave me a different experience.
I was in the leadership group over there and it really taught me to kind of step up and be a leader — and that’s something I haven’t had too much experience with. I actually had to step up and speak and things like that which I normally would do more in the background rather than too vocally.
“Like, the way the game has gone, I’m not a youngfella anymore,” Daly smiles. “You always think you are but you look around now and there are lads playing with you who are five, six years younger than you nearly. So, that’s definitely part of my game that I’m looking to grow, part of my personality I’m looking to grow.”
Daly and his eight Munster teammates who represented Emerging Ireland returned home from South Africa ebullient, but were immediately thrust into more serious business.
Munster had made a poor start to their first campaign under Rowntree and his assistant coaches and Daly describes the southern province’s 31-17 home victory over the Bulls on 15 October as being “a massive win for us”.
Ultimately, though, it was the marquee Páirc Uí Chaoimh fixture against the Springbok ‘A’ side a month later which he believes “probably sparked everything this year”, a Big Bang of sorts which provided Munster with a conviction that they’re going to need as they eye up a URC playoff spot and a European run between now and summer.
“I think that just gave us so much belief in our game-plan. We really felt we played them off the park that day. That was an incredibly strong side and I think that was the moment, really, that kind of switched it for us, where we felt: ‘Look, if we can beat them, we can beat any team.’
“We don’t look at this year as a development or transition year, like. We really want to win this year and I think we’re moving in the right direction, definitely.”
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