On-song Calvin Nash climbing every mountain

Progress in Calvin Nash's career came slower than he hoped. But he has stepped on the accelerator now.

HEATING UP: Calvin Nash's career had a slower start that he wished but things are starting to accelerate for the Munster man. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Calvin Nash was looking at a disaster. Here he was, a newly-minted Ireland Test cap, and his big performance was coming down around his ears. And not just his. Ciarán Frawley and Tom Stewart, two other greenhorns, were failing just as fast.

Forget Paul O’Connell in the Croke Park dressing room before that game against England. Table thumping and passionate rants have lost their impact. It’s the age-old custom of the initiation song for rookies that continues to put the fear of God into people.

Frawley, Nash and Stewart might sound like an old American folk-rock supergroup but the word is that their efforts at rehearsing ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ were making the local cats cry back when they debuted against Italy in November.

“It was a complete car crash,” says Nash.

It was team manager Mick Kearney who said they had to do it as a chorus. That plan changed when Dave Kilcoyne ordered them to go solo, but then what is elite sport if not a theatre of the unexpected? Players are expected to adapt.

Nash did just that, claiming dibs on the pop/soul classic and leaving the others fend for themselves. His efforts on the field since being elevated into the starting XV in this Six Nations have seen him stand out while staying true to the collective.

He has no pearls of wisdom as to why his elevation has been so smooth. Being part of national camps prior to that first run late last year had him primed, to a point, his coaches have helped the assimilation process, and there has been his own work ethic.

The only surprise for him has been just how good this Irish pack is up close.

“Look, obviously the games are difficult but you are playing against those players most of the time anyway in URC or Europe. So the intensity is quite high and the collisions are maybe a tiny bit more physical but, other than that, I’ve been fairly okay, to be honest.” 

He has been far more than just okay.

Praise has been winging his way from all angles with pundits abroad marvelling at the ease with which people like Nash, Joe McCarthy and Jack Crowley can slot into Andy Farrell’s side. One said Nash, who has four caps, looks more like a man with 30.

His is a story all the more remarkable for the fact that there is no rugby in his DNA. Crecora in Limerick is GAA country. That meant hurling, which he could never crack and wanted to quit, and Gaelic football while pleading to play rugby.

He was ten when his dad took him to Young Munster. School days in Crescent College, under the care of people like Tony Trehy, Eugene McGovern and Conan Doyle, cemented the bond, and he was playing junior and senior with Young Munster before his Leaving Cert.

An ideal finishing school.

“It's just like building blocks, you know? Constantly just building on what you've done the year before. Coming out of school, one thing you have in your head is that you're playing against men. You think you're coming out of school real young you're not able for it, but you are well able for it. It’s another confidence builder.” 

By 2017 Nash was making his senior Munster debut and captaining the Ireland U20s but progress from there to here was slower than hoped. Injuries were part of that and Simon Zebo said recently that there was even talk from Nash of calling it quits.

“There is some truth to it,” Nash says. “Myself and Zeebs were injured at that moment and I just wasn’t getting a look in at Munster at all. And I think, if it was two years ago, there was one season where I only played two games or something.

“I was bit like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing with myself’. It felt like I was caught in a rut and I was giving 100% but I couldn’t get anything back, know that kind of way? But Zeebs has always been bigging me up since I came out of school.” 

Zebo had heard strong whispers that Mike Prendergast was being repatriated from the Top 14 in France and felt that his arrival as attack coach at Munster would be just the change in circumstances and personnel that his younger colleague would gain from.

He was right.

Munster’s turn towards a more expansive brand of rugby has been right down Nash’s alley. There have been conversations with Prendergast about various work-ons and a focus on getting his hands on the ball that bit more.

"What I really like about Mike is, obviously he's a coach first, but he is one of the lads as well,” said Nash who has now been chosen for all four of Ireland’s Championship games this year. “And just having a personal relationship with him is great.

"I feel like, potentially, that might have let me down with older coaches that I didn't really form much of a personal relationship with them and I feel like communication, obviously, is massive between players and coaches.” 

Two tries in his four caps to date make for good reading and it takes nothing from him to say that his efforts have been solidly effective rather than spectacular so far. It says even more when Ireland have barely blinked in the absence of Mack Hansen.

Nash is 26 now, a later starter than most maybe at this level and yet there is clearly so much more road ahead of him. Look at it this way: he has just 66 games under his belt with Munster, only ten of those coming in the Champions Cup.

Zebo certainly expects more to come.

“I rate Calvin so, so highly. He can be world-class on his day. The transition from big club game to international rugby is still a huge step and he seems so comfortable, at ease and so excited to get his hands on the ball.

“His confidence is only going to grow with the more games he gets. By the time he gets ten or 15 caps he will be a different player altogether, getting used to the spaces that are available… There’s a lot of nuances to international rugby, especially in the back three.” 

He has hit all the right notes so far.