Thaakir Abrahams still getting his fast feet under the Munster table
FINDING HIS FEET: Munster's Thaakir Abrahams. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho
THERE were myriad reasons for Thaakir Abrahams to want to be on tour with Munster rather than staying behind in Limerick, rehabbing a thigh injury.
For a start, the summer arrival from French Top 14 side Lyon is frustrated by his inability to contribute to his new team with just one full appearance against Connacht on the opening day of the season to his name.
It will be the end of November before he is able to return to the Munster back three he was signed to augment with a rapid turn of pace and sublime footwork.
Not only that, as Ireland braces for the arrival of Storm Ashley, the 25-year-old from Paarl would have relished a return to the warmer climes of an Western Cape spring with Munster set to kick off against the Stormers on Saturday in much fairer weather ahead of a reunion with his former club the Sharks in Durban seven days later.
Yet what is most difficult for Abrahams right now is being apart from his wife Tasneem and newborn baby Diyaana, as he explained.
“At the moment I’m still waiting for my family to come across, they’re still not here and obviously with my newborn, still waiting for a passport and stuff like that,” he said.
“It’s difficult, I haven’t seen her in a month. They were in Lyon for a month and then finally got to South Africa last week and are in the process of getting a passport so waiting for that.
“They’re in Cape Town at the moment, visiting my family and they’re quite excited, they’re meeting my kid for the first time."
Abrahams added that missing Munster’s South African tour through injury was “part of the frustration but they say it’s part of the game, just probably not the nicest part of the game. But it’s been good. I’ve been here for a month and three weeks, I think, and I’ve been settling in well. The lads have been good to me, always going out for coffees, always doing something.
“I’ve been trying to build connections with the lads, that was really important for me. So I’m still spending that time with the lads, and I’m working on my mentality as well because it was a huge shift moving here and without the family. So spending time with the lads, I don’t want to be at home too much!”
Asked to explain the mental work he has focused on, the wing said: “Just refocusing, it’s a new team, new calls. I mean, rugby’s rugby but there’s new calls you need to learn and so getting on top of that and now that I’m injured as well, it’s more time for me to get into the system a bit more and understand it a bit more, which is great.
“Obviously I’m trying to get all the positives from this injury so that’s one of the positives I can take out of it, just learning a bit more about the culture, how they do things and how they play as well.”
Abrahams had done just as much homework on Munster as they had done on him prior to signing him from Lyon.
“Playing URC with the Sharks, Munster was always one of the top teams you looked forward to playing in the season and their brand of rugby, I think we look for space quite well and we play it well, moving the ball to the edges, which I like because obviously I’m on the edges!
“I like to get my hands on the ball quite a lot and that’s what we’re doing now. And it’s nice for me to learn from all the experienced guys and the guys around me in the game.”
Asked what he can add to the Munster backline, he replied: “My footwork is part of my game and I’d like to instil that into the team. I would like to complement the guys, and play off the guys like Mike Haley and Calvin Nash, Shane Daly, all those lads I was looking at last season and how they play. They’ve been doing an amazing job and I’d just to add on top of that.”
With Munster not set to return from South Africa until October 28 ahead of the mid-season break for the Autumn Nations Series of Test matches, Abrahams has targeted the November 30 fixture with the Lions at Thomond Park for his comeback rather than the next home game against an All Blacks XV on the second of next month.
“It’s just over two weeks now and then just a couple more weeks, so after the South Africa tour. We have a break in November so hopefully after that, we’re playing the Lions at the end of November and I should be back by that time.”
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