Munster wing Calvin Nash demanding more with season on the line
There's definitely more in the tank.
That's where Calvin Nash's head is at ahead of Saturday's BKT URC quarter-final against the Sharks.
The Munster winger, who played twice for Ireland in the Six Nations, has a decent record on the road in the Rainbow Nation.
Prior to last October's losses to Stormers and Sharks, Nash had tasted just one defeat in his previous seven games in South Africa.
That loss came in the opening Test of the 2024 series, in which he started both games.
His list of results on the road includes victories over the Springboks, Bulls, Lions, Stormers, twice, and a draw with the Sharks.
But in a mixed season for Ian Costello's side, who needed to win their last two regular season games to qualify for the play-offs, he's been in mixed form.
On a call from Munster's hotel in Durban yesterday, he declined to pour sugar on that.
"Emmm, I haven't been too happy with my performances if I am being honest with you," says Nash, who started all five of Ireland's 2024 winning Six Nations campaign, after a pause.
"I feel like there is still probably a bit in me. I want to have a lot more standout performances but look, I'm obviously not getting frustrated with it.
"I feel like I am doing my part for the team, but standards-wise I would prefer to be pushing myself out there and standing out a bit more."
What more does he need to do?
"I think a few weeks ago I dropped off in beating defenders and the first man, which is something I felt like I was quite good at before," says the 27-year-old, as Munster bid to record a first-ever win away to John Plumtree's side.
"For whatever reason I felt like my carrying wasn't as good as what it had been, so from the Benetton game, I just tried to go back to basics and focus on that – don't be thinking about other things and just scanning a bit better and communicating a bit better.
"I have tried to just narrow my focus, work on my aerial work and beating people and just backing myself with my reads in defence – stuff that I feel like I am good at."
Nash has scored five tries in 18 games this season and added: " I actually thought the La Rochelle game [in the Champions Cup] was one of my best games that I've ever played for Munster.
"I'm just being critical that I want, especially towards the end of the season, I want to have as good games as I possibly can do.
"I'm just trying to be hard on myself and want to push myself a bit more to get better and to be the overall player that I know I can be, and not have any regrets.
"So, yeah, I was just putting it out there being hard on myself. To be honest I don't think I've been playing poorly, I just have more in me."
Nash missed out on Lions selection with Ireland back-three players Hugo Keenan, James Lowe and Mack Hansen on the plane.
That means the Limerick man is targetting games on Ireland's summer tour against Georgia and Portugal.
"Yeah, it is a big goal," he says. "You set out goals at the start of every season and you don't really know what way the season is going to go for you.
"It is a big goal to get on the tour this summer but being honest, like I said, I need to get my performances up again and hopefully fly into this weekend."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
39 minutes ago
- The 42
Players must make most of minutes in the Leinster machine
OPPORTUNITIES CAN BE limited in a squad as deep and competitive as Leinster's. This is something assistant coach Robin McBryde warned about earlier in the season, admitting the Leinster coaches had discussed the issue of getting enough minutes into their promising young players. 'It is tough,' McBryde said. 'I feel for them sometimes because it does stunt their development. I don't know what the answer is there.' Leinster try to rotate their squad and use that depth to their advantage, but, particularly as the season rolls into the business end, selection tends to fall into a more settled pattern. It presents a challenging scenario for players trying to nail down a spot in the squad, most notably those who are also starting to push through at Test level. Generally speaking, if a player is good enough to get capped in a November window or Six Nations, they tend to be highly important players at their clubs. For example, it's hard to imagine Cormac Izuchukwu going back to Ulster after winning his first Ireland cap last November and struggling to get into the Ulster 23. Likewise Cian Prendergast at Connacht or players like Munster pair Calvin Nash and Jack Crowley when they were first called in with Ireland. Further afield, Lions-bound Henry Pollock won his first England cap in the Six Nations and has built on that momentum by getting more experience in big club games – starting seven times for Northampton since returning from England camp. However there's a group of Leinster players who have worn the Ireland jersey this year, yet still been left disappointed on the big days with Leinster. Take Jack Boyle, who earlier this week was the only Irish player on the 16-strong URC Next-Gen Player of the Season shortlist. The 23-year-old prop is highly rated and came off the bench twice for Ireland in the Six Nations. That would usually be a springboard for greater exposure at club level but he's been stuck in a tough battle for minutes. Since the Six Nations finished, Boyle has started three games for Leinster. He's on the bench again today for the URC quarter-final meeting with Scarlets [KO 3pm, TG4/Premier Sports], with Andrew Porter firmly established as the first-choice loosehead and the soon-to-be-retired Cian Healy also clocking up four starts since the Six Nations. Advertisement Gus McCarthy falls into a similar bracket. The 21-year-old hooker faces some of the stiffest competition imaginable, with Dan Sheehan and Rónan Kelleher, both set to tour with the Lions this summer, ahead of him in the queue. Gus McCarthy won't be involved against the Scarlets today. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO It's been a breakthrough season for McCarthy, who has played four times for Ireland – twice in November and twice in the Six Nations. Yet when Sheehan and Kelleher are both fit, McCarthy feels the squeeze at Leinster. Since the Six Nations he's played three games, with the URC round 15 win against Ulster his only start during that period. Earlier this month he lined out for Leinster A against Ulster A. McCarthy misses out again today, with Kelleher starting and Sheehan providing cover off the bench. A player like Jamie Osborne is in a slightly different situation, but can also fall on the wrong side of those selection calls. Osborne's versatility is one of his great strengths, and this season he's had starts at inside centre, outside centre, left wing and right wing. The 23-year-old is further along the line that many of Leinster teammates when it comes to international rugby. He memorably started both Tests against South Africa last summer and has added five caps across the November and Six Nations windows. In the Six Nations he earned two starts, at fullback v Wales and on the wing against France, and had been spoken about as an outside bet for the Lions. He's built on that with more time on the pitch at Leinster, starting five games since returning from the Six Nations, but notably he was left out of the Leinster 23 for their biggest game during that run – the Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton. Today he's back in the starting team, perhaps benefitting from the short-term injuries to Garry Ringrose (calf) and Tommy O'Brien (foot), who both miss out. It's a challenge not just confined to the province's younger squad players. Jimmy O'Brien, 28, is another Ireland international who watched the Northampton game from the stands, despite enjoying a good run in the team in the URC. At 27, Ciarán Frawley has been on the scene for some time now and looked to be hitting a new level last season. He was an important part of Leinster's run to the Champions Cup final defeat to Toulouse and played a starring role off the bench on Ireland's tour to South Africa. His form dipped earlier in this season and it's been a mixed bag since. Frawley was in the Six Nations squad but only got to pull on the Ireland jersey in an 'A' game against England. Lose ground, and it can be tough to claw your way back in. The Skerries man has had starts at 10 and 15 for Leinster over the last two months but has started the last three games – including today's quarter-final – on the bench. Frawley looked set for a big season coming out of that South Africa tour but as it stands at Leinster, Hugo Keenan is the locked-in first choice fullback, with Sam Prendergast the same at out-half. That fierce competition is part of the package when it comes to being a Leinster player, but it means that on days like today, they have to step up and make the most of their gametime. Leinster are expected to get the job done at Aviva Stadium and secure a home semi-final next week. Leo Cullen's side have three games to hurdle if they are to end their trophy drought. For some of those players who have been involved in tight selection calls across the campaign, there's still time to have a big say in how the season ends. LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O'Brien, Jamie Osborne, Jordie Barrett, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan (capt). Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Jack Boyle, Rabah Slimani, RG Snyman, Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Luke McGrath, Ciarán Frawley. SCARLETS: Blair Murray; Tom Rogers, Joe Roberts, Johnny Williams, Ellis Mee; Sam Costelow, Arhie Hughes; Alec Hepburn, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas; Alex Craig, Sam Lousi; Vaea Fifita, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree. Replacements: Marnus van der Merwe, Kemsley Mathias, Sam Wainwright, Dan Davis, Jarrod Taylor, Efan Jones, Ioan Lloyd, Macs Page. Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU).
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Season comes full circle as Munster return to Durban
Seven months on, Munster return to the ground where their season, and future, changed dramatically. When the province were heavily beaten, 41-24, by the Sharks in Durban at the end of October, it marked the end of a miserable South African tour, and left them with just two wins from their opening six games. It was a bad start to the season, but it was still a major shock when the province confirmed they had parted company with head coach Graham Rowntree just a couple of days after returning home from that trip. With an early-season coaching change, and a further shake-up of the backroom team when forwards coach Andi Kyriacou was let go a few weeks later, it's naturally been a season of peaks and valleys for the province. Big wins, inexplicable defeats and everything in between. There's rarely a quiet week at Thomond Park. Munster are never more dangerous than when they are rallying around a cause, and the pending departures of Peter O'Mahony, Conor Murray and Stephen Archer have been a real motivating factor in the last month. You could argue they never should have let themselves get into a position where they needed to win their remaining two regular season games to secure a play-off spot, and more crucially Champions Cup rugby for next season. But after finding themselves in must-win territory, there is no doubting they delivered, and arguably played their best rugby of the season in each of those second halves. Their reward for making it into the play-offs is another trip to South Africa, against a Sharks side that blew them apart back in October (above). On paper, the Sharks should be overwhelming favourites. Their teamsheet boasts multiple World Cup-winning Springboks, notably in the pack where they start Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche and Vincent Koch, as well as former Munster and Leinster lock Jason Jenkins. If you can deal with them, you still need to worry about Jaden and Jordan Hendrikse, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi, Andre Esterhuizen and Aphelele Fassi out in the backline. The Sharks are the most fascinating team in the URC. Laden with superstars, they have consistently failed to play as a sum of their parts, and finished fourteenth last season with just four wins from 18 games. They did, however, secure Champions Cup qualification through winning the Challenge Cup. They have been more consistent this season in the URC, and are the third seed for these play-offs, although there is still a question mark around their consistency, as their 10-7 home defeat to an understrength Leinster illustrated in March. "We obviously know that the quality is there," Munster interim head coach Ian Costello said of the Sharks improvements this season. "What we've seen over the last few weeks is how good they are off the ball; a team that's highly motivated, that scramble well, they're off the ground quickly. There's a good spirit and I think that enhances the quality that they have, where maybe in the past it mightn't have appeared they were as connected as that. "They look like a very connected group and it comes out really in the work-rate moments or the non-talent moments. They're very, very physical but what we've probably observed over the last few weeks if you make a line break it takes a lot of finishing before you score. "So, there's going to be really important battles off the ball in what we would call our catch-up in defence in our scramble or in our push-through in attack. If we bend them or if we break them we have to stay on top of them. "That's one of the key differences that we've picked up. Their work off the ball and their non-talent stuff is in a really good place in the last six to eight games anyway." The must-win element of the last couple of games, and the motivation of giving O'Mahony (above), Murray and Archer a fitting send-off has obviously played a part in Munster's return to form, but other, more obvious factors are at play. The end of the Women's Six Nations has allowed interim forwards coach Alex Codling return full-time with the province for the time being, and their lineout has started to function better as a result. The signings of Michael Milne and Lee Barron have also added some heft to the pack, but the most crucial element has been the injury list which has eased up, giving Costello more and more players back on deck. That good run of luck has now allowed Costello pick the same starting team for three games in a row. The last time Munster had previously named an unchanged team was in January 2018, a remarkable run of 188 games with at least one change in the side. Craig Casey and Jack Crowley are playing some of their best rugby, while the return of Diarmuid Kilgallen and Thaakir Abrahams from injury has seen them gain real speed in the back three. Defensively, there are still issues which were exposed by Benetton and Ulster in recent weeks, but after scrapping their way into the play-offs, they are a side that nobody will be comfortable facing, particularly with their unlikely run to the 2023 title still fresh in the memory. One of the big results on that title run came at this afternoon's venue, Kings Park in Durban, where they fought back for a 22-22 draw against the Sharks in the final round of the regular season, a result which altered their play-off path, and denied the Sharks a place in the Champions Cup. While they drew that afternoon, Kings Park remains the only South African ground Munster are yet to win at in the URC era. If they can channel the emotional energy of recent weeks, they have an outside chance of completing that South African set this evening.
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Leinster wary of a Scarlets side with nothing to lose
It may only be five weeks since the Scarlets last beat Leinster, but head coach Dwayne Peel says his team face the ultimate challenge if they're to pull off a repeat this afternoon. The Welsh side were 35-22 winners against Leinster in Round 16 of the URC in late April, a surprise win which ultimately proved the difference as they secured a spot in the play-offs, and next season's Champions Cup. As good as the Scarlets were in Llanelli that afternoon, the cavaet is that Leinster fielded a largely second string side, given it was a week before their Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton. Of this afternoon's team for the quarter-final, only five Leinster players started the corresponding game at Parc y Scarlets. And with his side now facing a wounded animal, Peel knows the size of the challenge against the Scarlets "There's no greater task than going to Dublin and we're looking forward to that challenge," Peel (below), a former assistant coach at Ulster, said this week. "We won't shy away from it, you've got to have confidence in your own group when you go there. "As much as they have some world-class names in their group, we've got some pretty good players and we're going to go there and give it the best we can." While Scarlets are significant underdogs, they do have history of pulling off some shocks in Dublin. In 2017 they became the first team to win a Pro12 semi-final away from home when they defeated Leinster at the RDS, and followed that up with another surprise win against Munster in the final at the Aviva Stadium. Eight years on from that incredible and unlikely title, the west Wales club have fallen from grace, and the prospect of them no longer being in the URC beyond 2026 is in play, with the Welsh Rugby Union reportedly considering dropping a professional side, or potentially merging two regions together. With all that going on, their achievement in getting back into play-off rugby is all the more impressive, and their return to Champions Cup rugby next season is a much-needed boost. With that secured, they travel to Dublin with absolutely nothing to lose. "It's going to be a great occasion and a case of embracing it," Peel added. "It's not about chasing five points, it's knockout rugby and it's all on the day. "We want to go further, we want to push a great team in Leinster as far as we can." With their Champions Cup defeat to Northampton still fresh in their memory, Leo Cullen insists there will be no complacency as they look to win three more games to end their four-year wait for silverware. Such is their fear of being seen to be complacent, the Leinster coach was reticent to go into details about whether or not Garry Ringrose would be fit for a potential semi-final next week. "Unfortunately Garry Ringrose is ruled out this week. We'll see what he'll be like if there is another week, but it's the here and now," he told RTÉ Sport. "We're only planning for now this weekend. We've already fallen into that trap, maybe looking too far ahead. "We are fully focused on Scarlets, and the medics will do what's best for Garry." And Cullen (above) says his side are determined to give their supporters something to celebrate this season. "This tournament will always have importance for us, regardless of what had happened up to this point. If we were in Cardiff [for the Champions Cup final], whether we were the winners or losers over there, we would still have the same mindset going into the quarter-final, because this is the bread and butter, the club. "This is, when we go to the fans, trying to sell the season tickets, this is what makes it up. "We feel a responsibility to the fans that have supported us unbelievably well over the course of the season, so hopefully they will see that in the performance of the team, because the team feel we need to put in a proper performance to reward the fans that turn up to watch us."
