Daly: Earls and Conway are massive to me

When Andrew Conway and Keith Earls are two of those ahead of you in the pecking order, it can’t be too easy for an obviously talented wing like Shane Daly to see a clear path to Munster starts on the biggest days.

But the 23-year-old Corkman is content with his lot after rewarding Johann van Graan’s confidence in him with a series of fine performances, most notably with a two try contribution in the 68-3 hammering of Southern Kings last time out.

“It ended up being a perfect night and I always love playing in Cork as well — so to score two tries in front of the family is always nice. We have set our goal now to reach the semi-finals of the PRO14 so every game from now on is huge and there are not many left in the season.”

It will be another month at least before the international contingent return to Munster which affords Daly and several of the younger contingent the chance to display their talents.

We’ve played a lot together as well at the start of the season with the internationals gone to the World Cup and our results overall have been very good.

"You could nearly look at it as our second side but we have a lot of good young players performing well in every game.

“Last week John Hodnett steps up and gets man of the match in his first game. There are a lot of lads with that potential as well so these weeks give them every opportunity.

“We firmly feel every week that we’ve put our best team on the pitch and we love playing together.

"This group is quite close, we’ve been on tour in South Africa, we’re always been around this building (High Performance Centre) and while you know some people come and go, it’s just nice that you’re playing with friends you’re very familiar with and that makes a big difference on the pitch.”

So Daly just wants more of the same against Zebre.

“They’re a tough team to beat at home. They’ve lost only one of their last four games. Leinster only beat them 3-0. Look, we’re taking it all one game at a time and last week was obviously a good start.

Our confidence is probably good going into this week so it’s all about making sure we finish the job off in this block.

As for the big two ahead of him, Earls and Conway, Daly says:

“They have been huge in my development. When it comes to Champions Cup weeks it’s not great but on a normal week to have them around and learn from them is something that’s been massive for me.

"Wing wouldn’t be the position I grew up in, I played most of my rugby at 13 so it’s a good thing and a bad thing having them in the squad really.”