Nankivell ready to step into departing leaders' shoes 

BKT United Rugby Championship, Virgin Media Park, Cork, Ireland 16/5/2025

Munster’s ability to negotiate the pressure-filled challenge of reaching the URC play-offs has given Alex Nankivell the belief his side has the right tools to go into Saturday’s quarter-final at the Sharks with confidence.

Having dug a hole for themselves with back-to-back league defeats following their Champions Cup quarter-final exit at Bordeaux-Begles last month, Munster rescued their campaign to secure a place in the knockout rounds with bonus-point wins on successive weekends over Ulster and Benetton.

The upshot has been a trip to South Africa and a serious examination of their title credentials at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday evening when they face a powerhouse Sharks side brimming with Springbok quality. Yet the New Zealander believes the switch to a knockout rugby mentality for those final two matches of the regular season has primed Munster well for the task ahead.

“I think we’ve learned a lot from those games,” Nankivell said. “We weren’t perfect in both of those games but the stuff you learn through game management, moments becoming so much more important in these games, it comes down to the little moments and how many you can win.

“So we definitely can take a lot of confidence that we have been there, even though they weren’t finals in the last couple of weeks, and learn from those to know that we can go deep. That ‘been there, done that’ kind of thing will give us confidence, definitely, going into Saturday.” 

The former Chiefs centre, who moved to Ireland in the summer following the 2023 URC title success, said he had not been aware of Munster’s winless record at Kings Park. A 22-22 draw came in their championship-winning campaign two years ago, in between two heavy losses, a 50-35 Champions Cup Round of 16 defeat in April 2023 and a 41-24 loss last October.

“I didn’t really know that, to be honest. Obviously, the URC is young and we haven’t been playing over here too often but the Sharks are traditionally a very strong team. That hasn’t been touched on yet from the coaches and I’m not sure it will be, because it’s a quarter final.

“In my opinion, if you start thinking about that too much it might be in the back of your mind and might create a bit of pressure for the lads. So we are purely just focused on our preparation and then winning the quarter-final so that we get another week in the semi-final. Obviously it’s a thing but if we get our stuff right, I genuinely believe we can beat them and break that.”

Those are the kind of words which back up Ian Costello’s assertion after the Ulster victory that Nankivell was one of the “great leaders” poised to fill the vacuum about to be created by the departure of dressing-room veterans Stephen Archer, Dave Kilcoyne, Conor Murray, and Peter O’Mahony.

Now 28, and with a new two-year deal signed in December to extend his stay at Munster to at least the summer of 2027, Nankivell’s imagination about his leadership potential has been sparked by the interim head coach’s statement.

“It was nice (to hear) firstly,” he said. “To be honest, I wouldn’t have ever looked at myself like that, I feel like I’m a part of the cog but I’ll challenge people and keep people accountable.

“And then I have a different experience coming from a different place that plays a different style of rugby so I feel like can be helpful at times, just challenging ideas and getting people to think outside of the box.

“I guess I’ve never really thought about, well I’ve thought about leadership obviously and how I can influence people, but probably not to that extent. It’s probably something that I’ve got to think about as I’m ageing a wee bit now and a few of those big guys are leaving.

“We need people that are going to step up and drive standards and be leaders and show the younger guys how to be a professional. So it’s definitely something since that conversation that I’ve been thinking about in the background.

“It’s something I’ll dive a bit deeper into over the summer I’d say. Talk to a few people who have been in those positions before because it is hugely important for a team to be successful is to have good leaders. I’ll try to find my own way of doing that.” 

A reunion with incoming head coach Clayton McMillan, his former Chiefs boss, in pre-season could well accelerate the process. It was Nankivell whom McMillan sought out for advice when he was in the frame to be a potential permanent successor to Graham Rowntree and the pair chatted in person when he visited the High Performance Centre during a Chiefs bye week in the Super Rugby season at the end of March.

“He was just asking about the place and he was being really honest around would he be a good fit for the people we have here and I said, ‘yeah 100%’, he’d be awesome.

“Myself and John Ryan, being Chiefs men, we got to catch up with him when he came over and he was just asking questions about it, talking about things so he get a good grasp on where we were at and a few ideas that he could potentially implement.

“It’s a pretty cool sign. I know the lads said they were amazed that he came over in his week off to do that, so it shows where he wants to be in terms of his preparation when he turns up to the place. It’s pretty impressive.”