Munster's Fineen Wycherley eager to show his worth ahead of long season ahead

SHOW HIS WORTH: Fineen Wycherley during a Munster rugby squad training session. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

When Mike Prendergast this week urged the Munster squad to make the most of the opportunities game time offers in this small pre-season window, the attack coach was preaching to the converted.

With seven Ireland internationals not due back in action until early October and the likes of Jean Kleyn, Dave Kilcoyne, Tom Ahern, Paddy Patterson and Edwin Edogbo set to return from injury in the coming weeks, Friday’s friendly against Gloucester at Cork’s Virgin Media Park presents that chance to impress for those players who have been training from day one of pre-season back on July 29.

That applies to every player, be they a newly-arrived summer signing or an academy player, and somewhere in between, second row Fineen Wycherley is just as eager to show his worth ahead of the long campaign ahead.

The 27-year-old will soon enough be competing with Ahern, Edogbo and Kleyn for a start, as well as Ireland starter Tadhg Beirne. And having missed pre-season two years ago due to a shoulder injury following off-season surgery, he knows only too well the difficulty of recovering lost ground on established positional rivals.

“Two years ago I was in their position, missed pre-season while they were injury free and got a good start to the season. It does make a difference if you’re in for the whole pre-season and you get a nice run into the start of the season and you’re in the team and feeling good.

“You get opportunities and it’s my plan to take them this year, at the start of the season and see whatever happens after that.

"With those lads coming back in the next couple of weeks competition is high, it’s always high in a squad like this, so you have to take those opportunities and that’s the plan now against Gloucester this weekend. Hopefully I play this game and then URC 1, 2, 3 and on.”

Wycherley, from Bantry Bay, has sustained more than his share of injuries over the last two seasons, starting with that surgery in the summer of 2022.

Just three games into the season he was sidelined again with the same shoulder problem and did not reappear until January while last season there was similar disruption, a shoulder injury in training in December, a return in February and a knee injury two games into his comeback.

“They were nothing too serious but it’s frustrating, they were tricky times of the season and medium-term injuries, like eight weeks with my shoulder, around six weeks with my knee but because of the timing of it, when I was supposed to be back we had a two-week break so all of a sudden it goes to eight weeks without playing and that’s a long time and getting back in is tough.”

Pictured is Fineen Wycherley and Saoirse Ryan. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

That said, Wycherley passed the 100-cap milestone for Munster last season and feels privileged to have done so, although he knows not to dwell on his achievement.

“Over the last few years I’ve had a few opportunities and very lucky to have 100 caps for Munster and hopefully I can add to that this season, kickstart the whole thing again.

“You have to keep upping your game, you don’t have time not to. You look at just the academy players coming through, they’re chomping at the bit for your position so the second you take your foot off the pedal, they’re still going 100 miles an hour for it. You don’t have the luxury of sitting back and resting on your laurels. You have to keep building on it.

“That’s how competitive it is. Wig and the coaches are very much ‘next man up’, and he’s ready to go. The academy train with us all the time and everyone is on the same page all the way down to 20s, 19s, 18s. That’s the pathway they have created.

“Everyone is doing things the exact same way, the same calls, everything. So when they come up they’re already at the same levels as us, they don’t have to take time learning the details, they’re ready to go.

"It is very competitive and if you’re injured or not playing well you do get pushed out and you give an opportunity to someone else to step up. You have to be always on it.

“So for me, with the frustration of the last two seasons, struggling just to get consistent game time, that’s what gives me extra motivation this year to really put the foot down and hit the ground running at the start of the season.”